Fate Alternate Routes
by Traingham
Summary: Meet Emiya Shirou, self proclaimed superhero and a ladies man, despite not knowing it himself. These are the untold stories of his affairs with the dangerous women who live under the same roof with him.
1. Rider, Dead End

Disclaimer: _I do not own Fate/ Stay Night or any of its characters..._

**_Fate/ Stay Night: Alternate Routes_**

**_Scenario One: RIDER_**

_By Traingham_

* * *

_Lately I've felt a disturbance in my thoughts at night. My dreams no longer follow a proper path, almost as if some sort of unseen force is at work. It feels as though my dreams are ensnared in some sort of web... No, that's not right. It's more as though my dreams are bound tight by threads directed by another dominating influence. Once captured I experience some sort of hi-jack. For example, I'll dream of a grassy knoll in the far distance where a sword awaits me up top. I'll run to it, pumping my legs tirelessly, pushed on by some indescribable desire to reach out and grab for it so that I can pull it free from the earth and when I arrive at the summit something unexpected happens. I grip the hilt of the sword and it begins to twist like a violent snake. I try my best to let go of it, but it transforms into a chain and proceeds to wrap around my arm, encircling it until it reaches my chest, down to my waist and finally, my legs. Losing my balance, I fall to the ground and get pulled into darkness._

_Most people would dismiss it as a nightmare, but I tend to take my dreams seriously due to my past experiences dealing with them. It's a long story, but something is going to happen in the near future. I can feel it. The only problem that stands is, will I be ready to face it?_

_____**.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.* .*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.* .*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.**_  


"Sempai." A soft voice tugged at Shirou's consciousness gently. He didn't realize it, but a smile came to his lips as he groaned in his sleep. This voice was comforting for him. It provided the sense of warm familiarity that he needed to get in touch with after having, once again, been plagued with the recurring nightmare that had been no stranger to him for the past few days. His eyes opened slowly and he propped himself up on his elbows to look up at his usual early morning visitor, Sakura Matuo. Being woken up almost everyday by the young beauty was probably something he was taking fore granted and he knew it, but maybe that was the problem to begin with. They had known each other for so long that he had eventually gotten past the idea of her just being another one of his friends and had come to identify her as a younger sibling, however, lately that illusion had begun to deteriorate, revealing the truth that he had been trying to deny for so long.

_Sakura is hot._ The young Emiya's thoughts leaned in that direction, with only his integrity as a gentleman keeping those thoughts from manifesting into a full blown erotic fantasy. Not that it had done a successful job of preventing that whenever Tohsaka or Saber managed to arouse similar thoughts, but Sakura was a special case. She was delicate, pure, a childhood friend. He just couldn't imagine anything culminating between them past an everlasting friendship between two family members...so why was it that his eyes kept on straying towards those capacious breasts? What was she doing to get them so-

"Good morning, Sakura!" Shirou decided to get the exchange moving before he could come up with any theories. He averted his gaze from her before she could flash him her usual smile and turned his attention to the clock hanging on the wall. "Whoa, seven o' clock already?" Which should not have elicited such a response from him since that was technically early, but he was going to do everything within his power to convince himself that he should be concerned about it, or dairy products were going to come to mind somehow and they weren't going to relate to cows at all.

"It's still early, Shirou-sempai." The purple haired junior told him with a hint of concern in her voice. If Shirou took the time to look at her, he would have seen the blush blossoming upon her face as she considered her next choice of words. "I...heard you moaning in your sleep from the hall so...I got concerned."

"Concerned?" He looked at Sakura and her face went completely red with embarrassment. Bringing a balled hand to her chest, she turned her head to the side quickly, her bangs overshadowing her eyes in the process. Still, he didn't get the hint, "What were you concerned about?"

"Ah!" She perked up at his inquiry, "Well, th-that maybe you might have b-been..." She turned her head slowly to regard him, mouth hanging open to finish her answer. "...experiencing stomach problems?" Shirou, naturally, was unable to determine whether this was a question or an answer to his question. Either way, he was glad that the atmosphere lightened up a bit. He didn't need such an awkward start in the morning, especially with it being his turn to cook breakfast today and his fellow tenants being the demanding eaters that they were. Saber and Taiga were not going to give a damn about his feelings so much as whether there was going to be food on the table when they got up from bed. Admittedly, it was an abusive relationship. He just kept telling himself that it wasn't for the sake of his pride as a man.

"I better make breakfast then." With that he stood up from the floor and stretched out his arms before walking to the door, but it was closed. He scratched his chin and looked over his shoulder at Sakura with a quizzical expression. "Did you slide the door shut?"

"No." She replied innocently. "The wind, maybe?"

He stopped and stared for a moment...and shrugged his shoulders. _Sakura wouldn't lie about something like that...although if she was, that would mean that she was watching me while I was asleep. _"Yeah, must have been the wind." Because that would have been creepy.

* * *

"Yay!" Illya's melodic cheer filled the dining room as she took her place at the table. Such was her way whenever it was Shirou's cooking on the table and not Rin's. "It's Onii-chan's day to cook breakfast!" She must have cried out loud enough for Rin to hear regardless of wherever she might have been, which conveniently happened to be, at the entryway from the west hall. As usual, the lovely magus entered the living room, sans the lovely, as she did every morning. Everyone got used to it.

"You don't need to yell." Rin groaned, clearly not in the mood to start anything this early. She spotted her cup of tea and her hands clawed for it as if it was her own personal life elixir. After taking her first generous sip her expression lightened up with a warm smile indicating her immediate switch in gears, "Ah...my favorite tea leaf." She licked her lips, turning her head to regard the man slave of the house. He was currently finishing off the complimentary onigiri that always accompanied Saber's breakfast. "Hey, nice touch, Emiya-kun."

"Yeah, thanks." He muttered, not sounding quite affected by her words in the least. He turned with Saber's plate in his hand and stopped short on the tip of his toes when he almost ran into Sakura in the process. Apparently she had been standing behind him the entire time. "Sakura? What are you doing up? I served you, didn't I?"

"I just wanted to help you finish off the table, sempai."

Shirou forced a smile to her as best he could without allowing any one of his eyes to twitch. Ever since Sakura managed to move in, her eagerness to help out, or rather, help _him_ out with _everything_ had been taken up a notch and all it was managing to do so far was the opposite of what she intended through her actions. Instead of taking the weight off his shoulders, she had succeeded in adding yet another chore to his task list, which just so happened to be, fending her off. "That's fine, Sakura. I'm almost done..." His voice failed him when the junior's lively expression gradually darkened with his words. Whenever she did that it always managed to make him feel guilty.

"Here." He handed her the plate, lifting her spirits again. "Take it to Saber."

"Alright!" She nodded almost gratefully before she turned away to deliver the goods. Back at the table Saber raised an eyebrow as the young Matou walked her way with the rice balls in hand. Yes, she knew that Sakura harbored strong feelings for Shirou Emiya, but there was something about her today that felt slightly exaggerated. While it was natural for her to insist on helping Emiya in the morning with breakfast, her approach today bordered a bit on aggressive. It was to the point that she could actually see Shirou's discomfort, something that he was usually quite versed at concealing when it came to the young woman in question.

Illya saw it, too, just not in the way that Saber viewed it. "Onii-chan!"

Shirou looked over his shoulder at her call. "Yes, Illya?"

"I wanna help with breakfast tomorrow!" She demanded.

Rin smirked, "Fine. I'll take the extra help." Her unexpected response made the little girl pale, if such was possible. She flailed her arms at the realization of her error and made an attempt out of it, "I-I meant, the next time it's onii-chan's turn!"

"Too late." Rin denied her, the smirk on her face having curled into a grin. "Hope to see you bright and early tomorrow, Einzbern."

Shirou finally turned away from the stove and walked over to his sitting spot beside Saber with his plate of food. Ignoring Taiga's looming eyes over his plate, he picked up his chopsticks and proceeded to dig into the fish that Sakura had prepared, "Your fish is delicious, Sakura," He complimented her after swallowing a bite before his self-esteem took another punch, "As usual." He muttered under his breath.

"Yes." Rin decided to voice her own opinion. "Better than Shirou's!" Her eyes swiveled over to him cheerfully as she added the sting, "As always."

Shirou glared at her, "No one asked for comparisons!"

"I was just agreeing with your feelings, Emiya-kun." The pig tailed magus retorted casually. There was an audible swallow from Saber's direction after her words were said and she looked to the blonde beauty just in time to see her wipe her mouth of a few grains of rice. The expression on the normally stoic knight's face told Rin that she was about to go on the defensive for Shirou.

"I must disagree." said the knight in an honest voice. "I find no flaw in Shirou's cooking, neither do I favor Sakura-san's fish over his."

"Your opinion doesn't count, Saber." Rin responded to her defense. "You naturally prefer anything Shirou cooks over other foods."

A light blush blossomed upon Saber's face and she turned her head to the side to hide it, "A-And there is something wrong with that?" Of course, she asked this while pulling her plate of onigiri closer to her own eating area. She was not liking the surreptitious glances that Fuji-Nee was casting over them, and the empty bowl of rice in front of the teacher was enough of a warning to the rest of them that it was time to finish what was left on their own plates before she decided to do the job for them.

"No," Rin replied, waving her chopsticks back and forth as she did before reaching down into her rice bowl to pop the last of it in her mouth. "Anyway, I don't have any real plans today." She looked to Shirou with an unreadable expression. "Hey, Shirou." At her call the other three girls at the table shifted their eyes towards the magus suspiciously.

"Yeah?" The young man responded, setting his eating utensils down.

"You wanna come with me to the city?"

"What for?" He asked, paying no mind to the shift in Tohsaka's expression.

She narrowed her eyes slightly, not taking well to the subtle rejection. "Who cares, what for? You have plans for the day already?"

"Not really."

"Then go out with me." With the way she simply went out and said it, misinterpreting her words as a date proposal would not have been odd. Sakura and Saber stared at her as if she had grown another head on her shoulder. Illya on the other hand-

"Onii-chan can't go with you anywhere." The snow fairy stood up from her spot and walked over to the young Emiya to claim his arm possessively as she went on, "Because me and him are going to go to the park to play together."

"But didn't he do that with you yesterday?" Sakura worked up the nerve to protest, but her words were only met with a cruel stare from the little girl whose red eyes seemed to pierce her own with an implied threat. Was it ever mentioned that Illya could be downright scary whenever she got that way? To her there only seemed to be two things that were important to her, that being amusement and Shirou Emiya. Try to deprive her of any of the two and you were looking for trouble, as was just made clear to the junior.

"So?" Illya finally said after looking away from her to nuzzle Shirou's cheek with her own. "Today we're going again."

"Perhaps that is unfair, Illya." Saber announced her own protest. "Shirou must want to-"

"Get beaten around by you again?" The little girl interrupted her before she could finish. She looked to Shirou, "Well, do you, oniichan?"

Shirou massaged the back of his neck awkwardly. "I don't necessarily get beaten around by her..." His defense was admittedly weak, because that was exactly what went on in the dojo whenever he trained together with Saber and it didn't help that Illya sat in on a few sessions. If anything, the only reason he returned from a session with less bruises than he used to was because Saber had gradually gone easier on him from guilt and a few other reasons that didn't need any listing.

Illya decided to go for the throat with this one, "Then what would you call it, onii-chan?"

"Failing excessively." Naturally, Tohsaka went in for the execution before Shirou could come up with a reasonable excuse. "So," She got the young man's attention again, "Are you coming with me, or what?" That aspect of her was truly amazing in his eyes. When Rin wanted something, she went after it with the total confidence that she would eventually have it within her grasps, hence the way she casually threw another offer his way to accompany her to the city when seconds earlier, she nonchalantly insulted him.

"Why don't you take Illya along with you." Shirou suggested, intending to kill two birds with one stone. That way he can put some distance between him and Illya and manage to go for more than a few hours without Rin's sarcasm. Oh, simply the thought of it threatened to bring tears of joy to his eyes! But Illya wasn't going to accept it.

"No way!" Illya protested, hugging Shirou's arm even tighter than before. "I want to go with you, not _her_!"

"Um, sempai?" Sakura raised her hand hesitantly.

"You really are disappointing me, Emiya-kun." Rin stood up from the table with a frown.

"Sempai?" Sakura called to him a little louder the second time.

"Shirou?" Saber got his attention before her much to her dismay.

"Yes, Saber?" Shirou looked at her, gradually doing his best to free his arm from Illya's vice grip all the while.

"Would you be against walking?" The knight inquired, a hint of timidness in her voice. "If you are opposed to accompanying Tohsaka, that is."

"Well..." He seemed to consider it, but-

Rin perked up at his indecisive response, "What is this?" She glared at him. "You can consider her offer, but you flat out refuse mine? Where is the fairness in that?"

"SHIROU!" Sakura's sudden cry broke everyone else out of the conversation, even getting Fuji-nee to set down the newspaper that she had been occupying herself with. Shirou blinked a few times in shock while Rin and Illya stared at Sakura dispassionately as if she was nothing more than an interrupting nuisance. Saber, on the other hand, took on a curious expression, studying the girl with mild interest. Yes, this must have confirmed her suspicions somewhat. There was something off about Sakura Matou today, but she was unable to diagnose what exactly it might have been.

"Yes, Sakura-san?" Shirou asked.

Finally having his attention on her, Sakura straightened out the wrinkles on her sleeves. "I actually had something in mind for today." Ignoring the way Illya was staring at her, she went on, "Since you and me really don't spend as much time together as we used to...I figured that maybe you and me could go to the archery club and spend the day there. Um...what do you think?"

"That..." Shirou nodded his head a few times before offering her a smile, "...that's not a bad idea, Sakura. Sure, why not?"

Then, just as if recalling something, a confused expression washed over Rin's lovely features. "Now that you mention it, didn't you tell me that you were going somewhere with the other archery members today?"

"What?" Sakura gave her an equally confused look.

Rin nodded, "Yeah, that's right. You told me that Mitsuzuri had some kind of trip planned for the archery club today, and that you were going to leave to meet up with them early in the morning. You informed me last night, remember?" There was a pregnant silence after she reminded Sakura of her predetermined plans. Both girls simply stared at each other for a good minute or so, building enough tension in the room to choke a horse. After a while it didn't seem like Sakura was going to respond, so the magus decided to prod her on, "So what are you still doing here?"

Sakura swallowed. "...She canceled." Her answer was, needless to note, a hint suspicious.

Shirou looked to Taiga, "Fuji-nee, shouldn't you know something about that? You're in charge of the archery club to begin with, aren't you?" His question was met with a few blinks from the teacher as she munched on a strip of fish that Tohsaka had left unattended. If the young woman was aware of this, she sure wasn't showing it.

"I heard something about a trip today." Was all she could respond with.

"Ugh," Shirou pinched the bridge of his nose in annoyance, "I can't believe that you're so ill informed about these things."

"Heeey!" The Taiga whined. "I heard about it, at least!"

"Well, "Shirou turned his attention to Rin, "If Sakura says it's canceled, I don't see any reason to doubt her."

Tohsaka stared back at Shirou, stroking her chin for a moment as if appraising him before shrugging her shoulder. "Alright then. You're coming with me today, Illya." She ignored the groan that the little girl let out at her words, leaving no room for any argument. She then turned her attention to Saber, "And you, Saber? If you're in the mood to go out walking, then come with us. You might even have some fun at the city."

Saber shook her head to the magus's disappointment, "I must decline. It would be best if I accompanied Shirou and Sakura to the archery club."

The young Emiya glanced at his servant uneasily at her response to the offer. He should have seen this coming somehow. "Um, Saber..."

"No!" Sakura snapped. "I only invited Shirou-sempai!" The girl had some bite, that was for sure.

Saber, reaching the end of her patience with the girl, fixed her with a cold stare. It was not unlike the stares she would shoot at one of her enemies and Shirou was all, too, familiar with it, having been a witness to all of the engagements they had pulled through together. He had the feeling that some intervention was in order, and quick. "You are not my master, Matou. Do not think that I will pay any mind to your protests, as you cannot command me."

"Saber..." The knight looked to her master when he called her name, feeling a twinge of betrayal at his disapproving tone. "...Could you go with Rin and Illya instead?"

She did not intend to back down easily. "Shirou-"

"Saber." Shirou called her name again softly. His tone was so sincere and gentle that she felt the anger within her dissipate like a doused flame. She simply could not bring herself to fight against him wholeheartedly whenever he spoke to her that way and on that count she felt that he was cheating, because he knew just as well, dammit. "Could you please go with Rin? I'm sure you'll have more fun going out with her than concerning yourself with me and Sakura."

"..." Saber appeared as if she wanted to argue over his choice of words, but she managed to hold back. "...Very well."

"Oh," Rin's voice got the attention of the three, "By the way, Sakura..."

Sakura almost appeared to be threatened by Rin's presence when she spoke, "Yes?"

"Where's Rider today?" Her question had everyone else at the table, with the exception of Saber and Fuji-nee-sensei, thinking the same thing. In the 'Taiga's' case, she paid no mind to the name because she wasn't actually familiar with the servant. Saber, on the other hand, simply held no shred of concern for the treacherous servant. The less they saw of each other in the day, the better. Such was the manner of their relationship despite the fact that they themselves did not truly understand why. Perhaps it was all part of the natural balance of the world for them to oppose one another and they were simply victims to causality.

"I'm not...sure." The girl replied, albeit hesitantly.

Tohsaka was not quick to accept her answer, seemingly content with studying her face for a moment before shrugging her shoulders. "Alright then. You two have fun at the archery club, then."

Shirou glared at her, "What are you trying to imply?"

Rin simply grinned, "Nothing, Emiya-kun." She turned the question back on him, "What kind of thoughts are going through your head?"

"N-Nothing!"

"Nothing, huh?" She mused. "Well, I guess that's natural for you."

"And what is that supposed to mean?"

"You figure it out."

"GRR!"

Saber appeared to have the right thing in mind for her day since the weather was beautiful outside. It was the perfect day to go out for a walk and the young Emiya inwardly felt a little guilty for turning his partner down, but Sakura was on him all through the morning so he figured it would not have been fair to her to ruin her plans in favor of the blonde knight, especially since they rarely did this sort of thing together. With Shinji gone, may he rest in peace_ (..Not really...)_, Sakura had more freedom to herself, which she mostly spent at the Emiya Estate, helping him around the house and just about everything else in general. She helped him with the shopping, small house repairs, and she even tried accompanying him to work a few times despite his protests about it. All in all, she dedicated the majority of her time to him, never really bothering to cater to her own needs and desires, or at least that's what he thought. So whenever she wanted something out of him, he just had to fulfill her wishes or he would naturally feel bad about rejecting her later. It was terrible enough for him when she made that pout of her's. Who could resist it?

The walk to the school was a fairly quiet one, so much in fact that Shirou had begun to wonder whether he had done something wrong back at the house to get this sort of treatment from Sakura. Usually she would have brought something up to talk about by now, however, by looking at her he was able to see a concentrated expression gracing her normally gentle features. The effect it gave off made it seem as though the girl was pursuing some sort of goal that was-

_She grinned._

-not far... from...reach. What was that about?

"What happened, Sakura?" Shirou inquired curiously, causing the grin to drop from her face quickly. The expression she regarded him with after she did resembled that of a person who had just gotten caught in the act of doing something suspicious. This was just getting weirder by the minute.

Sakura folded her hands over her lap as she walked along with him, "What was that, sempai?"

"I saw you smirking at something, so I figured something might have been funny." Shirou replied. His words were met with a quick shake of her head in response.

"No, nothing is funny." She answered him, a relaxed expression returning to her features. "Although," She brought a balled hand up to her bottom lip, rather close to covering her mouth, "Don't you think Saber-san was acting a little weird at breakfast earlier?"

Shirou cocked his head to the side inquisitively, "What do you mean?"

The expression on Sakura's face looked a little hurt. "She didn't seem to trust me." She turned her head away slightly, "Maybe she thinks I'm a bother."

"Oh, that?" Shirou forced out a chuckle to lighten the mood, "Saber is always like that whenever I go somewhere! It's not that she doesn't like you. It's just, she always feels like she needs to be close to me for some reason even though there aren't any more masters running around." He massaged the back of his neck awkwardly, "Well, except you and me, that is."

"That doesn't bother you?"

"Bother me?" His cheeks burned a little from her question. "Maybe a little, but...that's just her way, and it's not like I don't appreciate it. Saber is the closest person to me, so-" He whipped his head back to her and laughed nervously when he realized how his words came out, "I-I mean, she's one of the closest people to me besides, um, you, Tohsaka, and Illya." He paused. "Er, and Taiga-san." He was so focused on the conversation that he was having with her that he didn't notice her come to a halt in front of a red light.

"Sempai!" She snagged him by the the back of his shirt to stop him before he got hit by a car.

"Geez!" Shirou looked over his shoulder and smiled at her sheepishly. "Thanks, Sakura...that was close."

"Pay attention to your surroundings!" She scolded him, her eyebrows furrowed in genuine anger.

"Yeah, I'm sorry about that." He scratched the back of his head, looking away from her. "That would be a terrible way to die after living through the war." He joked, "Saber would probably track me down in the after-life and smack me around a few times for dying just for not looking both ways." The image was vivid in his mind, Saber coming after him like a mad woman with a shinai in her hand while he pumped his legs to keep a distance from her, angels looking on in the background trying to decided whether they should get involved.

"...Don't." The somber tone in Sakura's voice got Shirou to turn his head and regard her in worry. He must have said something to upset her. "Please don't bring that up."

"I'm...sorry, Sakura." He apologized, dropping his hand at his side. "I didn't mean to bring back old memories."

"That's fine." She did her best to smile. "You'll just have to provide me with new ones."

He blushed at her words and nodded absently, "Um...yeah. That's right."

When the light turned green they crossed the street and continued their walk to the school, which was nearing in the distance. Since there were no classes today, most of the students were either at their clubs or hanging around at the front gate waiting for their friends to come out. Shirou figured that Sakura didn't want to make anymore conversation since the walk resumed in a long silence. Perhaps bringing up the Holy Grail War might not have been such a smart idea. Bringing it into the context of a joke might not have been so hot either.

_I sure feel like an ass._ The young Emiya thought with a sweat-drop. He looked back at Sakura and turned away in lower spirits when the look of concentration had returned to her lovely face. She probably didn't want to hear anything from him right now, so she was doing her best to block everything out. _I wonder how Saber is doing with Rin, and Illya. Hopefully she isn't giving Rin such a hard time down there. I know how difficult it is for her to appreciate most of the things they have to offer, so she probably has this neutral expression on her face even as I'm thinking about it._

"Sempai..."

"Huh?" He pulled himself away from his thoughts at the sound of her voice. "Yes, Sakura?"

"What do you think about, Rider?"

_...Silence..._

Shirou stared dumbfounded at the younger girl for a moment. He had been under the impression that he sprinkled salt on an old wound, so the fact that she decided to speak relieved him, but for her to bring up Rider of all people at the start of a new conversation was totally unexpected. She really blindsided him with the question as well. What did he think about Rider? What did she mean by that? What did he think of her personally, or was she referring to his opinion on her looks? It was difficult on all accounts, really. On one hand, his personal thoughts on Rider was rather mixed due to a few obvious reasons. She proved to him on a few occasions that she could be a nice person, but most of his experiences with her could not be written down on paper without including terms like blood loss, or agony, or even paradox. On the other hand, Shirou might have been a little dense when it came to female matters, but complimenting a woman's looks in front of another female was a _BIG NO_. It was an unwritten rule. Tohsaka didn't like it. Illya didn't like it, and she was a little girl, by the way. Hell, even Saber didn't like it! So there was absolutely no way Sakura was going to ask him a question like that and he'd answer with something positive. So with that dilemma laid out as it was-

"What do you mean, what do I think about her?" Shirou asked, unable to hide the suspicion in his voice.

"It's a simple question, sempai." She told him in an unSakura-like tone. She turned her head to look at him slowly, "What do you think of, Rider?"

Chills rattled his spine. "Think of her...how?"

She narrowed her eyes, "I'm not being specific. Just tell me."

"But, see, that's the problem." Shirou told her, his self-preservation instincts kicking in, "I _need_ you to be specific."

She walked closer to him, her eyes still meeting his own, "I don't think it's that hard, Shirou-sempai. What do you think of her?"

"Rider is...okay." He regretted that answer when Sakura came to a sudden halt, leaving him to hit the brakes hard before he could leave her behind. He turned around to find the young woman standing their with an expression on her face that was difficult to place. It didn't look like she was angry...just...between amused and dissatisfied. "Did I say something wrong?"

"Okay?" Sakura echoed him. "Rider is just,_ 'okay'_?"

Shirou did a quick side glance to check for any onlookers before replying, "Yeah. She's okay."

"Okay?"

"Well, I don't know. She isn't exactly...spectacular!" He heightened his voice on the last word to exaggerate it.

"So you basically prefer Saber." She outright stated it rather than asked.

Shirou nodded a few times, unsure whether he was even allowed to. "Um...yeah? But, um, why did you bring her up? Are we comparing servants?"

Sakura humphed and walked past him, "Forget that I brought it up."

_I don't get it..._

He watched on as she walked ahead for a few seconds before a great idea suddenly hit him, and he jogged to catch up to her, joking, "Hey! Do you want to trade servants for a day?"

"..." No response.

He bowed his head. "..._I_ thought it was funny."

* * *

**_[ The Archery Club ]_**

As always, nothing appeared to have changed about the archery club since Shirou had been forced to leave it. The floorboards were waxed to their usual shine thanks to Mitsuzuri's guidance as captain of the club. She probably had the freshmen do most of the work, though, so it was sort of a forced labor on her part. He walked around to get a feel of the place again as Sakura closed the door behind herself, and spotted the storage closet in the corner of the room where all of the equipment was kept. The last time Mitsuzuri had him come over and repair some of the bows was about two weeks ago, so he was sure that a little bit of maintenance had to be done on them. Maybe that was the actual reason Sakura brought him over with her.

Shirou sighed as he rolled his shoulders. _I should have known that Sakura wasn't behind this. She'd be to shy to invite me anywhere alone. Mitsuzuri most likely convinced her to do this so that she didn't have to come up to me directly, herself. _He proceeded over to the closet and placed his hand on the handle to turn, but he became hesitant, noticing that Sakura had not turned the lights on. It shouldn't have taken her very long to flip the switch since it was right beside the door. What was keeping her so lon-and then, it hit him.

A squeamish sensation passed through his stomach as the smell of blood wafted through the room. Actually, no, that wasn't it. It was not so much that it smelled of blood, but rather it felt like blood had been splattered all over the walls in such an instance that it could have been there the entire time and he would not have noticed until it was too late. Considering that he was experiencing it right now, he _was_ too late. A dark presence was felt behind him and his muscles tensed up reflexively.

_Shit. _Shirou grit his teeth. _What the hell is behind me?_

"Sakura?" He called the name of his kohai anxiously.

His call was answered by the familiar rattling of chains. "Sakura-sama is currently on a trip with the archery club, Shirou Emiya."

Shirou's eyes widened in surprise, "Rider?" He turned around, unsure of whether he should have been relieved or... "Why are you dressed like that?" He was referring to the black dress, arm sleeves and knee high boots that she normally wore whenever she was in battle mode. Her iconic, purple seal also took the place of the glasses that she had taken to wearing with her civilian clothes. The way she looked now, it was giving him horrible flashbacks. He could still taste the sweet air of the blood fort from so long ago, and the smell of his own blood on his clothes after being stabbed and ripped apart by her iron nail.

"What's the matter, Emiya?" Rider questioned him sinisterly, her abnormally long, purple hair bouncing around her face with each step she took toward him. "I've given you no reason to behave so cautiously around me," She stopped to bring her iron nail to her lips so that she could give it a long, suggestive lick, "...have I?"

"You're armed." Shirou replied, his eyes narrowing imperceptibly. "How do you think I should behave?"

"Obediently." Rider answered him with a smile that sent unpleasant shivers through him. "That way it'll be easier on you." She ended her sentence by throwing her nail at him without warning. He did the only thing his mind could formulate as a defensive maneuver in such little time and tried to dodge to the side, but it did him no good in the end. The chain took on a life of its own and wrapped around his right leg, slithered around his waist and finally, his left forearm in a fluid motion before the end of the iron nail lodged itself in the ceiling above him. He was trapped like a fly in a web.

"I wonder if Saber will come to your rescue, Emiya." The dark woman said with a straight face before stopping in front of him. "Without any more command spells it is bound to be impossible, so it's just you and me roughing it out."

"I don't understand why you're doing this." Shirou struggled against the chain futilely. "Are you going to hurt me?"

"That depends entirely on you." At some point as she was talking her hand found itself upon his chest. He looked down at it as she slid two of her fingers into an open space between two buttons and gripped the fabric before tearing his shirt open in one smooth pull. He didn't wear a muscle shirt underneath so he was showing off his bare chest to her and it was made even more apparent to him when her cold finger tips came in contact with his warm skin.

"Shirou," Her lips curled into a smirk, "You're shivering."

"It's cold," He replied as he did his best to flinch away at her touch, "Your hand," He clenched his teeth when she placed her entire palm on his chest, "It's c-cold!"

"Are you nervous?"

"Of course I am!" He yelled at her. "Who wouldn't be?"

"Good." With that, she grabbed him by the back of his neck with her other hand and leaned in quickly. When their lips met, Shirou, was naturally shocked, so much, in fact, that he almost cried out, but his mouth never opened far enough, because the moment he unwittingly granted passage something slithered into his mouth and coiled around the tip of his tongue. His eyes widened as the slimy muscle pushed into his mouth even further and started moving around in a looping motion, seducing his tongue into joining along. His resistance to the dark servant's advance gradually fell as he lost himself to her kiss, her teasing him to bring their serpentine dance into her own mouth with a strong suckle. After what lasted longer than his drunken mind could clearly measure, she pulled away from him, snapping the string of saliva that stretched between their parted mouths and slurping in what she was left with.

"You appear eager for more, Emiya." Rider moaned in his ear playfully as she pressed herself against him. She hummed seductively as she slowly dipped her right hand along his stomach, stopping to grip his belt with a frustrating tug. "Tell me, Shirou...am I really such a bad servant?"

"Ri...Rider...what do you want from me?" Shirou's question left his mouth in a near slur. Right now it was difficult for him to focus on anything. He had been profoundly aroused by the sensation of her tongue coiling around his own seconds ago and now, with her soft flesh pressed against him, his rationality was being driven to its limits. His heartbeat was pulsing in his nether regions and it was expanding. Not to say that Rider was oblivious to it since her hand had been long preoccupied with it, stroking the bulge through his pants with loving attention.

"I want you, hero." The servant purred to him, "I want the love that you devote to your dear, Saber. Is it really that difficult to understand?" She ended her sentence by touching the center of his chest with the tip of her tongue and leaving a saliva trail to the very bottom until all Shirou could see was the top of her head. He felt a pressure against his waistline as she pulled at his belt and the weight dropped, leaving him in his boxers. She let out an amused giggle at the sight of his tip peeking through the flap.

"Will you give this to me?" She asked without looking up at him. She accentuated her question by reaching in through the opening of his boxers and gripping the shaft of his member possessively. That contact was all it took for him to release his load on her face. Within the space of that moment his mind was able to process a sliver of embarrassment from the pre-ejaculation. Rider, on the other, merely smiled up at him and passed her tongue over the semi-transparent slime around her mouth before murmuring, "I guess that was a _yes_."

"A-Ah..." Shirou bit back a groan when her hand began stroking him in a slow motion.

"So Shirou, have you decided yet?"

"...Deci...what?" He choked out.

"Do you want me as your servant?" She gripped him and ran her tongue along his tip in circles.

"Urmph..." Shirou bucked forth by some irresistible urge. "Y...Yes..."

Rider pulled her head back, "Will you devote yourself to me as I will to you?"

Shirou's chest rose and fell a few times before he nodded weakly. Rider appeared to like the manner of his response, rewarding him by leaning in again. Electric jolts made both of his legs nearly give out beneath him when he was enveloped in her wet mouth. Unlike the cold touch of her skin it was warm, inviting him in every time she bobbed her head down. Before long he became saturated to the base in a mixture of her saliva and his own cum, filling the room with loud slurping noises every time she pulled back. One of her hands reached up and massaged him, while the other followed through in the up and down motion of her head like a second pair of lips.

"UrGH!" He finally reached his limit. The tips of her teeth came down on him gently and she bobbed her head a final time before pulling out and allowing him to explode. He wasn't sure how much time passed before his vision returned to him, but Rider was still on her knees when it did, though she had halted in her service.

"A final question, Emiya." She told him seductively.

Her response came in a wheeze.

"Am I better than Saber?"

Shirou nodded vigorously.

She stood up to his confusion and licked her lips before smiling, "Good to hear."

"...Huh?"

"We'll continue this in the evening." With that announcement she dipped low into a crouch and jumped up towards the ceiling before disappearing like a ghost.

_**(((Silence)))**_

"R...Rider?" Shirou called her name weakly, only to be met with no answer. He looked over his shoulder and to the ceiling to see if she was hanging over him, but she was nowhere to be seen. "Rider?" He called again, this time a little clearer, but he was still met with no answer. Then the horror dawned on him. He was standing in the middle of the room with his shirt popped open, and his boxers on the floor. This was a set up!

"RIDER!" He cried out desperately. "I'm sorry! You're the best!"

_No answer._

"I SAID IT! YOU'RE THE BEST DAMMIT!"

And just as the other times he screamed out to her, he was met with no answer, however, something else managed to reach his ears: The sounds of approaching girls. The hapless young man nearly screamed in terror, writhing against the chains in hopes that he could somehow slip free, but it was too late. He heard footsteps out on the front porch of the club house accompanied by a few giggles, and-

_**Click...**_

The door swung open.

"I told you it would be fun!" Mitsuzuri told Sakura, leading the way into the room. The archery captain laughed haughtily, turned to switch on the lights and-

"SEMPAI?" Sakura cried out at the top of her lungs, dropping her purse to the ground.

Shirou, finding that there was nothing else he could possibly do, gave them the cheesiest smile he possibly could.

"H-Hey girls."

* * *

**_RIDER, ROUTE ONE-DEAD END_**


	2. Saber Alter, Good End

_Disclaimer__:_ _I do not own Fate/ Stay Night or any of its characters..._

_A/N. The Dark Saber portrayed here will not be the cold executioner from the Heaven's Feel arc of the series. I'll try staying more true to her character in her second route. Also take note that the routes are not continuations of each other. EDIT: Minor alteration to the opening due to a major error on my part. You have my thanks, Radriel.  
_

**_Fate/ Stay Night: Alternate Routes_**

**_Scenario Two: SABER ALTER_**

_By Traingham_

* * *

_Arturia Pendragon. King Arthur. The emotionless king. The tragic heroine. _

_You know the stories, don't you? King Arthur and the round table of knights, the legendary sword Excalibur, and the wars that were fought by the great king? The tales that are found in books today are quite romantic. They speak of glory and the peace that the country luxuriated within under his rule, but most of all they speak of the sword that started it all: Caliburn, the sword that stole away everything from a young knight by the name of Arturia Pendragon. There is always more than one side to every story and while we were given the romance, we were spared the reality, for you see, to rule over a country you must not be human. That is to say that you must not embrace the weakness of emotions because they set limitations and laws that all humans abide by. To rule you must not love, you must not fret, you must not dream, and you cannot cry. Arturia was warned about the rule before she stepped up to pull the sword, but she did so anyway. She did so for the sake of her people, because she had more love for them than she did for herself, and so King Arthur was a great ruler. What more did the country need from their King? She sacrificed all she had to them; her body, her heart, and her soul, but that was not enough. They wanted what little was left beyond the mask. They wanted her to give it all and when she refused them, they betrayed her. They were oblivious to the laws that she was bound to as ruler and turned their backs on her, 'The Emotionless King'._

_Saber's memories were a plague to me, more often than not, during my first few days together with her as her master, and even now despite the time she has spent as a part of my new family. It saddens me every time I am forced to watch that beautiful girl hunched over her sword on that bloody hill. For all of her efforts to bring joy to her people, she was left to face her death alone, and even now when I see her from afar I feel angry because no matter how hard I try to make her wounds disappear, history is written in stone._

_That tragic knight will always be...alone..._

* * *

"Emiya."

_A vein bulged on Taiga's forehead._

"Yes, Rider?"

"Your omelet was delicious."

"...Thanks... I think."

"Here...cut me a portion of yours."

_A vein bulged on Illya's forehead._

"Rider, get your chopsticks away from me! You already finished yours!"

"But I want some of yours."

"I cooked them all the same, okay? What difference will it be for you to have some of mine?"

"The fact that its yours."

_A vein bulged on Tohsaka's forehead._

"You're becoming even worse than Fuji-nee. Wait until lunch comes around if you're so hungry."

"I detest waiting for things. Give me a slice of your omelet now."

_A vein bulged on Sakura's forehead._

"Rider...g-get back...hey, I'm serious."

"Just a piece, Emiya...that...is all I desire."

"But I've...barely eaten my-st-stop that!"

"Don't make it...hard on yourself, Shiro-"

Saber, finally having seen enough of the spectacle that Shirou and Rider were making in front of all the other occupants at the table, set down her eating utensils and slammed one hand down to get their attention. The position that they both chose to freeze on did not make a favorable sight in the blonde knight's eyes, with Rider practically falling over Shirou, one hand pressed against his face while the other reached for his plate, and the young man doing his best to keep her away, his right hand yanking her black blouse over her stomach while his left was preoccupied with gripping her wrist to prevent her from snatching his omelet. For everyone at the table, mainly Sakura, the sight was something quite unfamiliar simply because of the fact that it was _too familiar._ That was to say that a week ago, Shirou and Rider would not have been this comfortable around each other and now the two were falling all over each other, literally.

At breakfast time Rider would casually steal the spot beside Shirou, a place that Illya had claimed as her respective seating arrangement. In the pale girl's eyes that alone was enough to warrant severe punishment without any chance of forgiveness. The extra servings of rice that were usually reserved for 'Taiga', alone, had suddenly become available for the plum haired servant to fill her own bowl. For Fuji-nee, the only solution that she saw to ending the new arrangement was death. Tohsaka's private magic lessons with Shirou had suddenly become a little less private, with Rider and Sakura sitting in the corner of the room watching them. The pig-tailed magus found herself reflexively pointing a finger at Rider every time she happened to pass her by in the hall. Sakura wasn't liking how Rider would sometimes wake up the next morning with new reserves of mana that she had not provided her with personally and with nothing being reported of suspicious murders on the local news as of late, the junior was tempted to cancel her contract with the servant.

Arguably, Saber was taking Rider's sudden attachment to her master most personally. The list of reasons could have gone on for a few sheets of parchment, but the most prominent reason of them all was by far the simplest point. To state that point, Shirou was _her_ master. Fate made it so that _they_ would be bound together, not Rider and Shirou. When the fight for the Holy Grail was still raging, she was the servant by his side, not that treacherous dominatrix fiend. What her and Shirou shared together was something that could never be matched by something as shallow and baseless as mere lust. Apart they were incomplete and together they were one. She was his sword and he, her scabbard. You did not just write this stuff! This was something that the laws of the universe had planned even before their existence, so there was absolutely no way that Saber was going to let Rider walk off with her master's heart and soul before her very eyes!

Getting back to the present situation, "Rider." While Saber managed to keep her voice as dignified as she had always maintained it, there was the undeniable hiss of venom when she spoke her fellow heroic spirit's name. "Take your hand off, Shirou." Another thing to add to the list, by the way. Rider was not allowed to address the young Emiya as _'Shirou'_ within her presence. That was just the way things went and the list of rules were going on in Saber's mind as she went along.

Rider's lovely lips curled into a subtle smirk, "Don't feel threatened." Her choice of words got Saber's eyes narrowing imperceptibly.

"_You_ pose no _threat_." The blonde knight countered her with no inflection in her voice. "Just a nuisance."

"Well then," Rider allowed her weight to fall on the young man beneath her. Even Rin couldn't defend herself from a creeping blush as Shirou's face became buried between two mounds of flesh. He protested, doing his best to lift her off of him, but all that was muffled by her blouse, "Why so disturbed?"

Saber balled her hands on her lap, her knuckles cracking audibly.

Rin, seeing that a fight could possibly break out between the two heroes at any moment, nudged Sakura in the rib a few times. "Sakura."

"Y-Yes?" Sakura responded, her voice strained as the vein on her forehead bulged thickly.

"Call back Rider, would you?" Rin's eyes swiveled toward Saber for a moment to gauge the murderous intent that pulsed from her. If this kept up any longer, Rider was not going to be the only one in need of medical attention. Shirou looked as though he was suffocating beneath the sultry servant, his hands having fallen to his sides just a moment ago, twitching.

Sakura nodded stiffly before crying out, "RIDER!" Now, let it come to light that Rider was a very stubborn individual. Being one of the weakest servants of the Holy Grail War, she had developed a slight complex about her personal strengths and made up for them with sheer hot-blooded determination. She wouldn't back down in the most extreme of circumstance if she could help it, however, Sakura was an entirely different story. Observe how the look in her eyes immediately went from that of defiance to the unadulterated fear of a little girl caught in the sights of a most furious parent. Rider had become the poster girl of fear at the drop of a few seconds.

"Off of him?" Rider asked her mistress with a sheepish smile. When Sakura didn't even bother to provide her with an answer, the dark servant slid off of the young Emiya and sat properly, her head turned away from him as though it would have been a cardinal sin to do otherwise.

"Guh." Shirou filled his lungs with relief once the weight had been lifted from him, however, upon regaining his ability to see the others at the table, he was met with looks that made him wish that Rider had not pulled away from him. Illya looked to be on the verge of shooting her eyeballs at him and Sakura's features had taken the loveliest shade of red, while Rin on the other hand just smirked at him deviously like a cat staring down a defenseless mouse. Of course, their looks only paled in comparison to the expression on Saber's face. She could have slapped him with full force and it would have hurt less than what she was doing now. The look she directed at him was cold and emotionless, much like the first night they met under the moonlight. In a word, untouchable.

"...Saber?" He said her name delicately as if saying it any differently would bring disaster upon him. "Are you alright?"

"I am disappointed in you, Shirou." Her tone was that of a mentor disapproving of a student's actions. "You have gone, too, soft."

"Soft?" Emiya's head titled to the side. "What do you mean?"

Saber's right eye gleamed dangerously, "Why did you not throw her off of you?" Her question caught him off guard. She wasn't really serious about that was she? If he threw Rider off of him, there was the possible chance of hurting her and his code simply went against that. His relationship with Rider had finally blossomed into something close to a dear friendship so that was something else he had to keep in mind. The tension between him and the cold servant had finally vanished and he never wanted it to return.

"I can't do that, Saber." He looked to his servant sternly, earning an equally stern glare in return. Well, at least she wasn't looking at him any differently than cardboard anymore. "Rider's a girl." His defense caused said servant to steal a glance at him. While Rider may have been one of the most cynical servants in existence, she had come to appreciate Shirou's integrity as a gentleman. Sure, she wasn't just a _'girl'_ as he so chauvinistically put. It would have taken more than a simple bump on the ass to get her sore and chances were, a pulled punch from her could send the next guy to the ER in a second flat, but it was the thought that really count.

"Shirou," Saber crushed the urge to roll her eyes at that comment, "Regardless of the fact that the war is over, she is still a servant before she is a woman."

"But she's a friend, too." Shirou shot back, and with a shotgun shell, too. His retort elicited quite the reaction from the other women at the table, whom were all admittedly more comfortable with Rider and Shirou remaining as mere acquaintances and nothing more. To deny that Rider had beauty was to stay ignorant of the truth. Any man that ever had the pleasure of catching a glimpse of her whenever she went grocery shopping with Sakura at the business district of town instantly melted into a pathetic puddle of lust. Shirou managed to remain neutral around her because of their twisted relationship with each other, but if those rough edges managed to be smoothed away through the healing powers of friendship, there was no telling how long it would be before Rider claimed him for herself.

Illya was the first to voice her distress, "You mean...you're comfortable with _her_ now?" The pale girl pointed as Rider without a care in the world about how rude it was to do so, "Her? HER?"

"S-Sempai and Rider...are closer now?" Sakura was not comfortable with hearing this. Having Tohsaka, Saber, and just about every other girl at her high school as competition was bad enough, but now her own servant was a threat to her loving future with Shirou Emiya? She would not have it! She worked, too, damn hard for the one she adored above all else to be stolen away from her.

Rin brushed a strand of hair away from her face and sighed with an expression of boredom, "This was bound to happen anyway. Emiya-kun is just, too, friendly for his own good." She looked to Saber and attempted to lighten the mood, "Right, Saber?" The blonde servant was possibly the only woman she was willing to share Shirou with; the rest of those girl could shove it. After all, Shirou Emiya was under her rightful claim. With Archer no longer around to be her servant it was Shirou's duty to step forward and take responsibility.

Saber's response was to stand up and turn her head to the side with her arms crossed, "I'm excusing myself." With that she left the dining room through the east hall. Assuming from past experiences with an angry Saber, she was either going to take a bath in peace or heading to the dojo to let off some steam.

"But Saber..." Shirou stood up as well, bringing a bit of hope to the pig-tailed magus. He was actually going to chase after her like a real man. He was finally taking the proper route for once, but... "You haven't even finished your onigiri." ...it was too much to ask for him to come to his senses now, right?

"Shirou!" Rin growled, getting his attention.

"What?" He regarded her quizzically.

_What was he still just standing there?_

"Are you dumb?" She almost lunged at him from across the table.

Taiga, however, was more concerned about another particular issue and wasn't about to let things go any further without addressing it, "Shirou!"

Shirou turned his attention away from the fuming magus, "Yes, Fuji-nee?"

The teacher stood up, an authoritative air surrounding her. "I'll only allow your friendship with this _'Rider'_ to continue on one condition!" She balled her hands into fists and held them at her sides before shaking them like a spoiled child. "You're not allowed to give her any privileges over ME! I'm the _number one_ woman in your life!"

_And they all just...stared._

* * *

**_[ The Emiya Dojo... ]_**

Upon entering the dojo quietly, Shirou was appreciative of how predictable his servant was. There she was, meditating in the far right corner of the dojo in Japanese form, with a peaceful expression on her face. Perhaps she had gotten over what happened at breakfast earlier? Honestly, he had not expected her to react in such a way to his friendship with Rider in the first place. Of course, that alone proved how dense he was about the nature of her response. One would assume that the young Emiya would have already figured out why the gorgeous knight had decided on staying with him, as opposed to returning to her own time to face her death as she had originally planned. Unfortunately, he was still up in the clouds about it and it was taking all the will power Saber had within her not to wait for him to turn in for bed so that she could strangle him in his sleep.

"...Saber?" He called her name softly.

Her left eyebrow twitched, "Shirou?" She did not open her eyes.

"Yeah, it's me." He boldly came closer. "How are you?"

"I am fine."

"Oh," His relieved response annoyed her for some reason, "You kind of scared me back there. For a moment I thought I'd done something wrong."

Saber opened her eyes, "Something wrong?" She asked, her tone bordering on mocking him, "Whatever gave you that impression?"

"Well..." Shirou brought a hand up to scratch the tip of his nose nervously. The aura that his servant was emitting didn't do too well to keep him calm in her presence. "...you seemed angry. I've, uh, never seen you leave your plate behind before, and Fuji-nee took what was left of your onigiri, which is probably your favorite part of breakfast in the morning. It got me worried, so I felt like I needed to apologize." His observation of her eating habits, as well as stating his worry for her got the heat burning in her cheeks.

The lovely knight kept a victorious grin from forming on her lips. "I...I suppose you know me well, Shirou."

"O-of course!" He nodded.

"Then you understand my feelings in regard to Rider, correct?"

"You don't like her, do you?" He inquired hesitantly. "But...why?"

Saber averted her eyes, "It isn't that I hold any particular dislike for her." Or rather, she did, but she wasn't going to come out and just tell him that. She had an image to keep around her master and she didn't want it to be tainted with trivial matters such as the one they were currently discussing.

Shirou blinked. "Then what is it?"

"I feel that it is more instinctive than anything else." Saber replied, considering her words. "Aside from the fact that she and I have been mortal enemies in the past, she reeks of a foul darkness. I wouldn't even go so far as to accept her as a hero, regardless of her status as a heroic spirit."

"Darkness?" Shirou thought back on his first impression of the servant, which probably didn't help matters since it wasn't a very good one. Being stabbed through the arm by someone wasn't exactly opening bright new possibilities of love and companionship in the back of one's mind. "Er, I can see how she bothers you. I mean, it feels like she treads a path of blood whenever she's around, but...Rider is different now. She really has changed with Sakura as her master."

"I suppose so..." Saber paused before looking to him with an uneasy expression. It caught her master off guard, how vulnerable she appeared at that very moment. "...but does she have to be around you so much?"

"Huh?" Shirou stared at her without another word as his brain started cranking. He was sure that he'd seen this behavior from Saber in the past. Yeah, it happened around the time that Illya first joined the family. The little homunculus was practically his shadow, following him from place to place and demanding that he spend all of his time with her. If memory served him right, Saber had become quite irritable around that time because they were rarely able to meet as a result. It didn't take a genius to realize the reason behind her behavior. "Are you _jealous_, Saber?"

At his inquiry, Saber's usual method of denial kicked in instantaneously, "Jealous?" A furious blush colored her cheeks as she averted her eyes, "No, no, not at all." She cleared her throat and straightened out her posture. "I was only worried that Rider might have taken advantage of your kindness. People usually tend to."

Ignoring that last part of her excuse, he approached her and placed a hand atop her head. A first she raised her head to regard him curiously, however, once he started stroking her hair she closed her eyes as if coming to accept the affectionate gesture. "I appreciate it, Saber." He told her softly, feeling her shiver pleasantly under his ministrations. One small detail managed to bother him, though. It wasn't really all that important, but what was up with that standing hair strand? It just kind of stood there like an antennae and no matter how many times he ran his hand over it, it just wouldn't stay down.

"Weird..." Shirou felt his patience wear thin as the _'ahoge' _popped up for the tenth time after his hand passed over it, almost as if to taunt him for trying so hard to lay it flat. "Um, Saber?" He called for her attention, holding her antennae delicately to gauge its stability. He faintly entertained the thought that she might have picked up radio waves with i-

"Yes, Shirou?" Saber responded to the sound of her name, pulling her head back to look up at him and-**_POP! _**Actually, no, it didn't sound anything like a champagne cork, but seeing it come off her head so easily was pretty much the equivalent in the young Emiya's mind. Understand this, all things had a particular place in life, no matter how insignificant some would seem. Taking something out of place was like tipping the scales in the balance of the universe, and the natural response of the universe when such an occurrence took place was to set things back in order. Take, for example, the 'ahoge' that now found itself in Shirou's hand. It was one of the defining qualities that made Saber who she was, even if she herself did not realize it. It simply had no place being anywhere else other than on the top of her head, so now came the problem...

...Saber had a dangerous coping mechanism...

The blonde knight suddenly allowed her head to fall back without warning in a most disturbing fashion, startling her master. From Shirou's point of view it was like watching a life sized puppet have its strings get snipped off by an invisible pair of scissors. "Saber?" He was on his knees in an instant, supporting the back of her head with one hand as he wrapped his other arm around her back before she could fall on her side. She was still breathing so the only explanation for her loss of consciousness was fatigue, but that was nearly impossible for her unless she had been engaged in some sort of epic struggle. Well...there was always the chance that she might have been running a little low on mana. It had been a while since they last _recharged_...ahem...

_That...can't be it...right? _Shirou felt himself beginning to sweat beads at the idea. Even if that was the actual case, it wasn't like he could just go on to replenishing her life energy in her current state. Just the thought alone was indecent enough, and getting caught out in the open was just an invitation to trouble he honestly could do without. "I don't think this could possibly get any more awkward." He said to no one in particular, looking over his shoulder out of nervous habit. When he turned his head back-Saber was there looking him dead in the eyes.

"Y-YAH!" He would have let go of her at that moment, had it not occurred to him that his rate of misfortune would quadruple if he allowed her to hit the floor by doing so. Even so, she probably set the record in bringing him closest to an actual death and that was saying something. "Geez, Saber..." He removed his hand from the back of her head to steady his pounding heart, "...you almost gave me a stroke."

Shirou stared at her for a moment and blinked. Why did something feel off about this?

Gold eyes stared back at him almost viciously. There was no expression on her face at all, but the look in those eyes were not complacent. No, what he saw staring back at him were orbs devoid of peace; far different from the eyes that Shirou had grown so fond of losing himself in. It should have come to his attention then, that the eyes he was staring back into were indeed, not that of his dear Saber. If memory served him well his servant's eyes were more like matching emeralds, not topaz jewels.

"Saber?" His instincts told him to back away and put some distance between them, but his arms would not budge. His servant's eyes appeared to have the same effect on him as Rider's mystical gaze, though the effects were not magical. No, Shirou was held still with terror.

"Why are you embracing me, Shirou?" With her flat tone it was hard to tell whether she wanted to know the motivations behind their position, or if she just wanted him to refrain from holding her. He opted to go with the latter since his arms had finally become responsive again. Being that up close to the blonde beauty was bound to arouse his male libido anyway and it didn't seem like the proper time and place for that.

"I'm sorry." He offered her a bow in apology.

"Weak."

He raised his head, "Huh?"

"Your response is weak." Saber repeated herself, her eyes narrowing upon him with a sharp edge. "I asked you a question. I did not tell you to refrain from holding me." She stood up on her feet and looked down on him as if she could lift her foot and crush him if she wanted to...and she did. Shirou's eyes went wide with surprise when her socked foot planted itself on the top of his head and forced his chin down on the floor. "Are you intimidated by me, Master?"

Shirou grunted, pressing his palms against the floor in an attempt to raise his chin off the ground, but her foot held him down so firmly that he found himself struggling in his bowing position. "What's...gotten into you?" He managed to turn his head so that her foot rested on his left cheek.

"Looking at you...I see my weakness staring back at me." Saber's voice became distant, staring down at him. At that moment he realized that she wasn't looking at him. She was looking past him, toward a memory buried deep within herself; a single passing moment that decided everything. "I stripped myself of that long ago." Her eyes regained their focus, piercing him deeply like a sharpened blade. "As you are now, you'll only serve as my shackle." She punctuated her last word with a rough shove of her foot, sending him flying backwards onto his back before turning her back on him and walking in the direction of the door. Her steps fell heavily on Shirou's ears who got back to his feet so that he could stop her from leaving. His instincts started screaming for him to cease his foolishness, but his stubbornness quickly silenced it.

"Saber!" He came up quickly from behind her and placed a hand on her right shoulder to stop her, however-

"I predicted as much." Her voice remained flat, but the young Emiya could feel the smirk on her face even as she kept her back to him. The first strike was an elbow to the chest, forcing him to release her shoulder in favor of the painful sensation that exploded where her blow connected. His vision fogged up with the oxygen cut from his system, his thoracic cavity seemingly breached by the vicious surprise attack, and he was left to gasp hoarsely as the dark knight turned to face him with an unreadable expression.

"Rash as always, Shirou." She clenched her left hand and looked to it as if to contemplate it before she pulled it back. "Though I've secretly admired that quality about you." And she let her fist fly at him, reflecting from his eyes like a rushing javelin, sent to soar in his direction until all that was left to fill Shirou's vision was blood-pressed darkness.

**_..._**

**_..._**

"...irou?...Shi...o?"

"...ugh." His right eyelid felt heavier than his left for reasons that his mind was too scrambled to sort out and the back of his head was resting on something warm and soft. He didn't remember getting back to his room to lay down, so what was going on? Why did he lose consciousness? "Hm?" The blur of color and light finally solidified and came into focus, giving him a good look at Rin Tohsaka's lovely countenance. With his mind as scrambled as it currently was, he wasn't sure whether to be pleased that his idol looked so worried for him, or ashamed that he managed to get her to show it so openly in front of his eyes...or eye since the other one remained shut for some reason.

"Rin..." He said her name in an awkward greeting.

"I personally don't want to be right about this, but...Saber did this to you, didn't she?" She apparently hit the nail on the head since her reply was a weak nod on Shirou's part. About ten minutes prior, the magus had bumped shoulders with the servant in question back at the house with no words of apology exchanged between them. Aside from the fact that it was abnormal behavior, seeing Saber anywhere that wasn't within four feet of Shirou was just blaring klaxon alarms. On a normal day one had to pry the knight off of his back with a crowbar if they wanted to spend a moment alone with him and even then, you'd have to beat her away with a magical stick, or bribe her with some of his home cooked food to keep her away long enough to get through a private conversation.

"What did you do to her?"

"I'm...not sure." Shirou answered her, honestly. "One moment we're bonding...and the next, she's disgusted with me."

"That doesn't sound normal." Rin observed.

"I could have told you tha-Ah!" He winced when he felt one of her fingers touch his right eye. "What was that for?"

"She sure left you with a shiner." The magus clicked her tongue. "And it doesn't look like this was inflicted through training, either. You really must have pissed Saber off for her to sock you one."

"That's the problem..." Shirou lifted his head up from her lap and sat up beside her before he went on to continue, "That woman...she wasn't Saber. It couldn't have been Saber."

Rin quirked an eyebrow at his remark and smirked with a bit of skepticism, "An impostor, then?" Her response made Shirou sigh.

"I get the feeling that you're not taking me seriously."

"I don't know whose side to take."

"I'm not asking you to take-" He stopped in mid-sentence to shake his head in irritation. He could not understand why she was being so uncooperative. "-She punched me, Rin!"

"I'm guessing there might have been a huge misunderstanding." Rin shrugged her shoulders. "Admit it, you're a klutz when it comes to handling a girl's feelings."

"And how would you know?" Shirou shot back at her without thinking.

"BECAUSE-" His retort caused suppressed feelings to boil within the magus and she almost launched herself at him, however, she cooled herself before she could give him a matching set of black eyes. "-F-Forget about it. Lay your head down on my lap again so I can take care of that right eye."

"A-Alright." He did as she directed him, failing to prevent the blush that crept up as he did. When he was settled in comfortably, he stared up at her wordlessly. Rin tossed back her hair and leaned over him to recite the simple healing spell, however, she felt that his gaze was beginning to bother her. She was sure that he'd given her this look before, a long while back and for some reason she found it annoying. It was as though he wanted to ask her for something, but his pride was getting in the way. Perhaps if she ignored him...

"..."

"..."

"I might need your help with this, Ri-"

"You're on your own."

_**...**_

_**...**_

With Tohsaka's refusal to pitch him an idea, Shirou found that approaching Saber might turn out to be more of a problem than he originally believed. Pulling the feather-like strand of hair out of his pocket to examine it, he found nothing remotely interesting about it. Sure, there was a small amount of magic lying dormant within it, but that could easily be explained by the fact that it had once been attached to a heroic spirit's head. Regardless, there was no doubt in his mind that removing it was the trigger to the transformation that he witnessed within the dojo, but how was he supposed to fix the situation? The simplistic solution would have been to find a way to reattach the strand of hair to the top of Saber's head...but that was impossible. Aside from the fact that Saber didn't appear to be willing to let him come within arms reach, hair didn't just restore itself to the root...

"Unless..." Shirou swiveled his eyes toward the house. "...it was a magic hair."

"_You seem oddly focused, Shirou._"

Startled by the unexpected observation, he flinched and turned his head very slowly. When he reached the limit of how far his neck could twist without snapping, he was greeted by a view of Rider's face. The sultry servant had apparently crept up from behind while he was examining the strand of hair, which said a lot about how comfortable he had become in her presence since that was usually next to impossible with her, considering how the smell of blood followed her like an afterthought.

"Oh, it's you, Rider." He let out a sigh of relief.

"For your own sake, I hope that wasn't a sigh of disappointment." Rider told him, her lips right beside his ear as she did. The sudden pressure of her flesh against his back made the young man hop forward and whip around to face her, a furious blush coloring his features. He didn't understand why she made such a habit of pressing her body against him, but he was getting the suspicion that she just got a kick out of the way he reacted to her pranks most of the time. Sakura couldn't be teaching her these things, so the only other suspect would have been Rin.

"Stop that, would you?" He told her, frowning peevishly. "What do you want?"

"Are you annoyed by me?" Rider's tone reverted to its usual cold manner, ringing alarms in Shirou's mind to lighten the mood before he made her his enemy again. God knows, he didn't need that again.

"N-No...it's just, it bothers me when you do that..." He explained.

"What?" She cocked her head to the side.

He blinked. "You know...press up against me." She was making this awkward for him on purpose, wasn't she?

"I was under the impression that it was something you appreciated."

His thought process lagged for a moment once her heard her response. "W-W...Well, it's not that I don't li...er, n-never mind that! Seriously, where are you getting these sort of ideas from anyway? Is Rin telling you to do these things to me?"

"No." Rider answered him flatly. "My actions aren't influenced by anybody. I merely observe you."

"Observe me?" He massaged the back of his neck nervously. "You mean...watch me?"

"In a sense."

"...In what sense?"

"You're asking me to reveal too much, Shirou." The barest of smiles traced the plum-haired beauty's lips. All jokes aside, every time she did that in front of him, he couldn't help but feel that he managed to uncover one of the world's rarest treasures. The journey to finding Rider's smile was a dangerous one, indeed.

**_[ Meanwhile, in the Dining Room... ]_**

Having lost another round of Othello to Illya, _'Taiga' _was seriously beginning to question her own competence as a teacher as well as a grown adult. It didn't help matters that Illya did not bother to brag about how easily she kept on besting her. The girl merely nodded to her with the gracefulness of a professional and waited for her to set up the board for the next match. Was there anything that she shined in when compared to the rest of the women who had taken over the Emiya household? Her aptitude for combat withered before Saber's superior skills, her wit was like sweet cider compared to Rin's fine glass of wine, her cooking could hardly serve as an appetizer to Sakura's succulent feasts, and her looks...well, one look at Rider and that was the end of it.

_A-And now this? _Taiga felt her eyes tear up at the horrifying revelation.

Illya noticed her distress and asked, "Are you okay, Taiga?"

"GAH!" The teacher pulled at her hair in despair. "D-Don't call me that!"

The snow fairy grinned, "Oh, why not?"

"Because...it's unfeminine." Fuji-nee replied sheepishly as she traced circles along the surface of the table.

"But it suits you."

"I don't want to hear tha..." The evil grin on Illya's face gradually fell when the older woman stopped in mid-explosion to look at something over her shoulder. Twisting her upper body to see what was so interesting, the girl found herself mesmerized by what she saw. It was rare to see Saber attired in anything else other than the white dress shirt and blue, pleated skirt that Tohsaka had given her to wear since she had first become a resident of the Emiya estate, even more so since she no longer had any reason to summon her armor. On a few occasions Rin had even taken her to Shinto to go clothing shopping after having gotten tired of seeing her dressed in the same outfit day after day, only to come back with two bags of matching sets. When asked why she preferred the outfit so much over all the other choices she could have selected at the fashion stores, her answer was that Shirou had complimented how well they looked on her.

"...Saber?" Illya called the attention of the blonde knight when she casually entered the room, seemingly unaffected by Fujimaru's blatant staring. The heroic spirit did not respond to the sound of her name immediately, first walking to the fridge to open it and retrieve the wrapped onigiri that Shirou had saved for her from breakfast earlier before she even bothered to turn her head and regard the adorable homunculus.

"What troubles you, Einzbern?" Her tone was rather disinterested.

Illya frowned at the manner of her response, but resolved to ask what was on her mind anyway. "That's a new look for you, Saber. Is there any particular reason why you decided to change?" She was referring to the black, long sleeved dress she had on, with ruffles at the collar and sleeves, black laces tightened at the bust and a pleated skirt that fell just above the knees. Black stockings covered her legs, preventing any skin from being exposed below the skirt. Another noticeable alteration from her usual look would have been the black hair ribbon that she used to bound her hair in place of her normal blue one.

The barest of smiles crossed Saber's lips. "I've decided to accept my reality." Her reply made Illya narrow her eyes inquisitively.

"What is your reality?" She asked, cocking her head to the side curiously.

"That there is no hope for change." The dark night bowed her head in a brief moment of regret. "I cannot change what I've become, and to deny that is to deny the blood quaffed by my blade."

"Saber," Illya furrowed her brows seriously, "Do you really mean that?"

"I do not jest." Saber replied to her before taking a bite from the riceball in her right hand. They both remained standing in front of the refrigerator with their eyes engaged until Saber swallowed what was in her mouth and broke away to leave, but before she could make it out into the hallway again, Illya called out for her to wait. "I'll entertain a final question." Saber looked to Illya over her shoulder. "What is it?"

"Does this mean that you no longer consider yourself to be Shirou's servant?" Her final question appeared to have made the servant skip a beat, as she stood there for a pause before answering the question.

"...I will remain so until the day he decides otherwise." She disappeared around the corner of the doorway with her reply, leaving Illya to stand there with her arms crossed in disappointment. The pale girl huffed and turned her head to the side with irritation. For a woman who had supposedly come to accept her own reality, she sure was unwilling to let go of the hero from her fantasy.

"I figured as much." She grumbled just loud enough for Taiga to hear her.

"You figured what?" The short haired woman inquired, unsure of what to make from the scene that just unfolded before her eyes. "What just happened?"

"Well," Illya forced a smile, "It turns out that Saber-chan is a really greedy girl."

* * *

"I see now..." Saber said aloud to herself, munching on the last of the riceball in her right hand as she approached the house entrance. _...A deep realization has struck me through answering Einzbern's question. I still find myself bound to Shirou Emiya despite my claims of setting aside my delusions. What does it mean? Must I rid myself of that man in order to be true to myself? _She slipped on her shoes and stepped out into the front yard, stopping in front of the door when she caught a glance of two figures standing side by side in her peripheral. Now, Saber understood that there was a certain etiquette to follow when certain things came to pass, like slugging an individual in the face for the sole reason of making a point.

Looking back on it, Shirou honestly deserved it, no doubt. He came from behind her after she made it clear that she didn't want him to get near her, and all things considered, she received a sense of satisfaction from doing it, too, but there was an unvoiced rule that decreed a cooling period after a personal conflict. So even though the sight of Shirou Emiya and Rider having a friendly conversation, _alone_, irked her on levels that were too personal to list, it was not her place to get involved. She didn't want anything to do with Shirou anymore, anyway...even if she still wanted to consider him her master. See, thoughts like that were complicated because they contradicted each other, and it disturbed Saber that her own logic was so twisted, but she was still walking up to Shirou and Rider even as such thoughts distressed her, and now they were both looking at her because they sensed her presence, so it was too late to back away.

_Curses. _Saber silenced the urge to run herself through with Excalibur.

"Saber..." Her name left Rider's lips like a personal insult. Shirou, on the other hand, stared at her with the eyes of a dear caught in the head-lights of a truck before the impending crash took its life. That was to say that first impressions were important to the development of a relationship and as far as those went, she seriously screwed any chance of intimate bonding between them, which was what she was going for when she punched him, but...why were her thoughts becoming so complex?

Finding no way to open the conversation, she followed Rider's example. "Rider..."

_...Silence..._

"Saber...where did you get those clothes from?" Shirou finally worked up the nerve to talk, finding her outfit a little distracting.

"That..." She stopped herself, "...holds no importance. Did I not tell you to be careful with her?" She inquired, gesturing to Rider without turning her head to look at her. Her question vexed the young Emiya, who had been under the impression that he was going to have to do the talking on their next encounter. This was...unforeseen.

"Should he not be cautious of you, instead?" Rider countered before Shirou could speak. "You did harm him earlier, did you not?"

Saber's eyes sharpened upon her fellow servant dangerously, "He told you?"

"No. I was observing when it happened." Rider shot back, getting Shirou's attention.

"You were-why were you watching in the first place?" He asked her, mortified to be hearing this.

Rider placed a hand on her waist and swayed her hip to the side casually before answering, "Sakura-sama gave me the order to watch over you long ago. Up til now, she still has not rescinded that order."

"You just watched?" He asked, dumbfounded.

"I felt that it was a personal matter." Rider replied coolly. "It would have been rude to involve myself." She turned her attention back to Saber, "I am not sure what transpired between the both of you, however, any servant willing to hurt their master is not one to be trusted. From what I observed, he did not act against you so it was not self defense."

"You would not understand." Saber growled. "I have my reasons for pushing him away."

"You don't approve of him?"

"I cannot approve of him."

"Then why bother with one you cannot accept?" Rider pressed on. "Break your contract with him now and return to your own place."

"Rider," Shirou stepped in front of the sultry servant, surprising her, "I haven't consented to that. Don't go on saying things like that in front of me."

"You will get hurt again. You realize that, don't you?" Rider's voice came from behind him and he detected a hint of concern. Perhaps it was on Sakura's behalf that she would be worried for him, but he appreciated it nonetheless.

"I appreciate your concern, Rider. I really do, but...could you leave us?" He looked over his shoulder and offered her an assuring smirk. "I'll handle this alone." His request was met with an unreadable stare as Rider remained there for a moment with her arms crossed for a time, however, the look in his eyes must have convinced her. She answered his request with a slight nod and took a step back, dissolving into the breeze like vapor. Sure that she had respected his wishes, he turned his attention back to Saber. The air surrounding them must have gone cold, as a chill had gone down his back at the sight of his servant now that he was solely focused on her. She now felt distant and closed off and her eyes held no warmth for him as they once had. It almost felt as if she thought of him as a stranger.

He swallowed hard, gathering his courage. "Saber...you don't approve of me?" His question made her turn her head slightly as though it were a light slap to her face.

"...You are weak, Shirou." Saber said without a trace of emotion.

"Weak," She once told him something similar on their first few days together during the war, "I don't understand. What do you find weak about me?"

"You're naive, easy-going, accepting...forgiving." Saber turned her head to face him fully as she went on, "Those qualities have endangered your life in the past and they still remain with you even now. Have you forgotten that?"

"But, Saber...the war is over." He regarded her incredulously. "What are you getting at?"

"How long do you think this peace will continue, Shirou?" The black servant bared her canines, "You've only destroyed the Holy Grail of the previous war. There are many ways to produce another, and when that happens, what will you do?"

"...It hasn't happened."

"But it can and it will, and when it does come to pass the possibilities become endless. You are living with three potential masters, or have you so easily forgotten that?"

"They're my friends, Saber."

"For how long?" The knight questioned him darkly. "They have shown that their loyalties can be fickle."

"They had no control over that in the past. You know that." Shirou snapped at her.

"And fate can be so assuring."

"Who cares about that!" He scolded her. "Is that really why you're acting so strangely? Come on, Saber, that's just silly! I believe in them now, and even if another war began, I have you, don't I? We're an unbeatable force, aren't we?" He asked his last question with a forced chuckle.

"There is no...we..." She bowed her head.

The breath was stolen away from him. "...What do you mean?"

"I cannot bring myself to continue this." She turned her back on him and started off in the other direction. "Revoke our contract, Master. It was wrong of me to remain with you to begi-" She was stopped with a sudden jerk and she looked down at her left wrist to find Shirou's hand holding her back. "...Shirou..." Her tone was near to a snarl.

His voice came softly. "This isn't wrong, Saber. There's nothing wrong about us being together."

She wrenched her hand free and whipped around to face him, finally exploding, "_It is wrong!_"

"Why?"

"Because I cannot accept the idea of you!" She screamed furiously. "I cannot love! I have no right to give or recieve!" She threw down a fist as though she was striking down the very meaning of affection. "What right have I to smile? What right do I have to happiness when I've sacrificed it so many times that I cannot bear to recount them?"

"Saber?"

A tear rolled down her right cheek. "How can I hold you when my hands are stained with blood?" She brought a hand to her lips. "How can I kiss you when these lips have tasted the foul richness of slaughtered innocence? Do you have an answer for me, Shirou?"

"Because I love you." His answer came without hesitation. It was not a complex, or elaborate excuse. It was a simple declaration of his truest affections for her.

"How?" The question left her lips in a breathless whisper as she felt his arms wrap around her.

"I've told you before, I know about your past, Saber. I've seen your struggle in my dreams." He pressed his lips against her forehead and kissed her tenderly. "I've seen that girl on a hill of swords, facing death alone and unrewarded for her service to her people and I've shed tears in her place."

"...Why?"

"Because she deserved better. She was a radiant flame, fighting against the darkness and they simply blew her out. They lost their chance to see the beauty in her and..." He stepped back to look at her face, caressing her cheek gently.

_"...I don't wanna lose mine."_

* * *

_**DARK SABER, ROUTE ONE-GOOD END**_


	3. Luviagelita, Normal End

Disclaimer: _I do not own Fate/ Stay Night or any of its characters..._

**_Fate/ Stay Night: Alternate Routes_**

**_Scenario Three: LUVIAGELITA_**

_By Traingham_

**_Author's Note: '_**_Normal Ends' will get 'True Ends' in proper VN fashion._

* * *

_Who do you look up to? It's probably one of the easiest questions to answer for a child growing up with loving parents to support them, however, in the case of an orphan or one treated unfairly throughout their young life, the question becomes quite complex. I fall into the latter category. It's hard for me to remember the two people whom I once called mother and father. I lost them at a young age in the midst of a fire that consumed the place I had considered to be my home. That is where my story began, meeting the man that I would come to love deeply as a father, Kiritsugi Emiya. To be honest, it was probably an infatuation in my case. He took me into his home as his child, but I rarely got to see him. He was always traveling the world on his own, trying his hardest to become something that would forever stay out of his reach and I suppose you can say that in the end it wasn't the man that I began to chase after, but the ideals that he left to the world in his passing._

_What does it mean to be the hero? Is there really such a thing when the world is always divided in two? How can one tell apart that which is good or evil when the line between both sides is constantly blurred by selfish hopes and ambitions? It took a while for me to see the reality for what it was. It was a dream and nothing more. To save one person is to sacrifice the life of another and when that finally comes to light, you see yourself become the villain. _

_Perhaps that is why I could not accept that man. _

_He was the person I was destined to become, staring right back at me with hateful eyes. To think that I would hate myself for the ideals of a man that I believed myself to look up to as a child. It made me realize how much of a flawed individual I had truly become despite my efforts to better myself and become a man that others could look up to and be proud of. Maybe that might have been the reason that I found myself drawn to Rin Tohsaka, the young woman who inevitably held my present and future within her hands. In the end she became the person that I had come to admire, charging on throughout her life with no regrets, proud of her own accomplishments and brave enough to face her problems head on._

_..._

_..._

_But admiration was something that supposedly got stronger over time, right?_

_Wait. Something here is off._

* * *

"You're amazing, sempai!" Sakura Matou gushed over Shirou Emiya after his arrow hit the mark in the distance. The young man lowered the bow in his hand and grinned at her timidly, almost as if her praise overwhelmed him...which it did. The rest of the archery team could not help but turn their heads in his direction every time he hit a bulls-eye, mostly because Sakura was so ardent in her admiration for him that she felt the need to sing songs of greatness for the entire field to hear. Of course, that was an exaggeration; the part about her singing, anyway.

Handing the plum-haired beauty her bow back, Shirou patted her on the shoulder, "I guess that's enough for me." The tinge of rosiness that had painted the kohai's cheeks from the feeling of his hand on her shoulder had vanished like two fireflies in the darkness.

"You're leaving?" Sakura stepped into his personal space before he could put a distance between them. "Aren't you going to stay a little while longer, sempai?"

"I can't. Rin stopped me in the hall around lunch break to warn me about being late for our study." Shirou massaged the back of his neck nervously when Sakura's expression darkened slightly at the mention of her older sister. "I, uh, stood her up yesterday because Neko-san needed me to take care of a few things at her store and I seriously don't want to have a repeat of that lecture she gave me." _The one about how I don't know how to manage my responsibilities and all of that other stuff she talked about...its a bit foggy now..._

"...Alright. If its that important, I won't stop you." Her head bowed, overshadowing her lovely feature ominously.

"Thanks, Sakura-san." He told her gratefully, getting a quiet nod out of her in return, which was probably enough for him to know hat she didn't want to say anything else on the matter. With the message clear he turned and jogged across the field to get around the side of the building, sure that going through the porch would only result in having him run into Mitsuzuri; something he honestly could not handle at the moment since he was already just about running late for his engagement with Tohsaka. For those unaware, the aforementioned young woman was the archery captain of the club and his former colleague back when he had been a functioning member. The reason behind his departure from the club was due to a disunion between Shinji Matou and himself, though ever since the former had disappeared for "_unknown" _reasons, Mitsuzuri had been determined to get him back. It scared him sometimes.

"_Sakura-kun, where did Emiya-kun head off to?" _Hearing the voice of the archer captain come from behind him, Shirou decided that it was best to hasten his jog into a full out sprint. He came around the other side of the club house and continued his run across the campus grounds until he reached the safety of the front entrance to the school.

"Phew..." He let out a breath, relieved that the biggest obstacle was now behind him, though fate was a curious mistress, indeed. Removing his hands from his knees, Shirou straightened out from his hunched form to spot an unusual individual standing in front of the entrance. It was a young woman with sandy-blonde hair, styled in thick curls with drill ends that fell over her shoulders elegantly. Looking at the outfit she wore, Shirou could immediately tell that she was not from around the area, much less a student of the school. Her clothes were of the western variety; a fancy, blue cardigan with puff shoulders worn unbuttoned over a white dress shirt. Accompanying the cardigan was a matching, pleated skirt that fell above her ankles, just enough to give Shirou the impression that the white boots she was wearing were knee highs. She was of moderate stature, boasting a nice figure and a sizable bust. Personal preferences aside, where the hell did she come from, anyway?

_Wait...I've been through this before. _Shirou thought, looking away from the young woman so as not to draw her attention to him. _Every time I come across a weirdo something bad happens to me, so... _He shoved his hands into his pockets with his head bowed low in an attempt to give off a shady impression and strolled forward in the direction of the entrance. _...if I don't appear interested in her, then maybe she won't bother me. _And his ploy seemed to get him past her, Scott free, but just as he was about to praise himself for his own ingenuity-

"You there!" A robust voice called out from the girl's direction, stopping the young Emiya in his tracks with the effectiveness of a command spell. Inwardly cursing himself for halting in his own escape, Shirou straightened out his posture and turned at the waist to regard her, albeit, dejectedly. Many people in the world hated the boring normalcy of their lives. Most of them waited their entire lives to get swept up in something extraordinary so that they could find meaning or justification within their own existence, but Shirou Emiya was not one of them...at least, not any more. He loved the idea of being a normal young man, with normal issues and normal friends, but alas, it was an idea and nothing more. What was taking place now was another step in his extraordinary life. Yay...

"Yes?" Shirou responded to her call.

"I like you!" She came right out with it, walking up to him with an inquisitive gaze. "You have the look for what I need in a man." She leaned over to him, inspecting his legs and arms before taking his bicep in one hand and squeezing it. Needless to say, Shirou went stiff without a clue of how to react. "Not excessively muscular, but just right." She plucked at the collar of his uniform and checked for any smudges around the area that surrounded the neck. "You take care in your appearance," She sniffed him, "...and hygiene, too."

"Excuse m-"

"Hold it!" She cried out before he could continue speaking, stopping him dead in his sentence. Shirou blinked a few times as there was nothing, but silence shared between them in the short moment that followed and opened his mouth to speak again, but she cut him off a second time, placing her hands on her hips in a manner that would have been considered an act of seduction in any common man's book, though with this girl it appeared to be nothing more than a casual gesture. "Perfect!" She purred delightedly at the immediateness of his response, "You act on command, too!"

"Back up, would you?" Shirou held out a hand expecting her to step away from him, but she remained right beside him even as his hand came in contact with her chest. "Gah!" Upon feeling the firmness of her left breast cupped in his hand, he flinched it away from her with a furious blush and clutched it with his other hand. "Wh-What's the deal with you?"

"Calm down." The woman crossed her arms, not bothering to address the indecency of his error. "You're behaving like a fool."

Responding to the harshness of her words, he did as she told lowering his hands at his sides. "Well...you're invading my personal space. How do you expect me to react with a stranger like yourself?" His retort got a scoff out of her that seemed to belittle his reason as if there had been no plausible need for his outburst.

"What are you, a child?" She mocked him with a smirk before turning her head to laugh at his _'immaturity'. _"I was judging whether you'd actually be fit for the position."

Shirou raised an eyebrow, "Fit for the position?" He echoed her curiously. "What are you talking about? What position?"

"The honorable position of being my butler, of course!" The blonde woman answered royally as if it had been the most obvious thing in the world, and shame on him for not knowing as much. "What did you think I was doing all of this for?"

"...Er..." He stood there silently, unable to think of a response and it cost him dearly.

"Wait..." Her expression became quite amused as she brought a hand to her mouth to stifle another laugh. "Did you..." She took a moment to point at him rudely. "Were you, perhaps, under the impression that I was interested in you?" Her implied accusation caused the hapless young man to burn a shade of crimson.

"N-No!" Shirou cried out in embarrassment, finding his thoughts jumbled by her words so much that the only thing he could think of saying in his defense was another, "N-No!"

"Very well," She laughed, sounding unconvinced by his denial, "If you say so."

"Um, Sempai?" A soft call brought both of their attention to Sakura Matou, who judging by the disturbed look on her lovely face, must have been standing a short distance from them long enough to hear the accusal.

"Sakura-san!" For the first time since she had moved in with him, Shirou was genuinely grateful for her bad timing.

"Why are you still here, sempai? I thought you were hurrying back to meet with onesan." She turned her attention to the woman that had been harassing him. "And who is this?"

"I don't kno-"

"I am, Luviagelita Edelfelt!" The woman spoke over Shirou in a proud voice. "And I was merely offering this boy a position."

_Edelfelt? _Sakura said the name in her mind, but was unable to make sense of it. One thing was for sure though; it bothered her. "Unfortunately, Sempai might not be able to accept any positions from anybody hiring right now." The junior said with an edge in her voice that she was unable to suppress for reasons only known to herself. "S-So," Her cheeks gradually took a shade of red as her voice got higher with each word, "You'll have to look for someone else to take the position!" She walked over to her sempai and took his arm in one hand to pull him away, "Let's go Shirou-sempai."

"Alright." Shirou gave no protests to her aggression, allowing himself to get pulled away from the strange woman, but before he could get far enough she reached out and clutched him by the other arm, much to his horror.

"Shirou, was it?" Luvia said his name with a grin before offering him a card with her other hand. "My address is on this card, so, "She slipped the card into the breast pocket of his jacket and let go of his arm, "If you ever consider my offer, then come see me!"

"Unlikely!" He cried out as Sakura pulled him away, but even as they went farther down the street, Luvia's confident smirk never fell from her face.

* * *

**_[Later at the Emiya Estate]_**

* * *

"Emiya-kun," Rin pinched the bridge of her nose at the dinner table as she did her best to suppress her righteous anger, "I can't help, but get the feeling that you're not taking this seriously anymore." Her steely glare swiveled over to him, twisting his stomach into knots. "You stood me up yesterday, but I let it slide." She held her hands up, shrugging her shoulders nonchalantly. "People make mistakes," For some reason her eyes darted to his heart as she went on, "I know I have."

"Um..." Shirou sub-consciously placed his hand on his chest, almost protectively.

"But," She crossed her arms and raised a finger, "I only give the benefit of the doubt once. Now, I'm going to have to come up with some sort of suitable _punishment_ for your disobedience, and since you're not bound to me by any command spells, that means I'll have to get real _creative_ about it."

"I should have never given myself to you." Shirou muttered under his breath.

"I think I heard something."

Shirou shook his head with a smile, "I didn't say anything."

The magus quirked a brow at his response suspiciously, but decided to drop it, looking to the blonde knight that was standing beside her. "So, what do you think Saber? How should we go about Emiya-kun's punishment?" Rin's expression gave Shirou the impression that she was getting some kind of guilty pleasure out of the current situation. Saber, on the other hand, was in her usual mode of seriousness, which was something he was relieved for. If there was anyone who could put an end to whatever twisted scheme the magus had in mind, it was her. Tohsaka just seemed to have a natural weakness for the blonde servant. He figured it was just because of her fascination for Saber as a heroic spirit, but there had been instances in the past that hinted at something slightly more intense, such as the few times he had woken up in the arms of his beloved servant...with Rin Tohsaka somehow sandwiched between them. She never bothered with any attempts at explaining herself, regarding those accounts.

"The natural approach to take in this situation would be to extend the time of your sessions." Saber's judgment was naturally sensible, but the pig-tailed magus didn't seem very satisfied with it.

"That's boring." Rin complained. "Can't you think of anything a little bit creative?"

"Guys..." Saber and Rin both turned their attention to Shirou at the same time when he spoke, making him flinch. Those two were a formidable team, even if they themselves weren't aware of it. "I didn't come late on purpose. I was forcibly held back by someone." He gestured to Sakura as the junior seasoned the soup she was cooking, "You can ask Sakura-san. She was there to pull me away when she got back from archery practice."

"...It's true." Sakura said with a nod, although it was done strangely. It almost felt as though she had something to hide from them, but Rin was far too disappointed to tell. The only thing she was concerned about was the fact that Shirou had managed to slip out of her hands yet again. That Illya decided to make her appearance within the dining room at that very moment made things worse on her. Seriously, that little homunculus was just here to antagonize her, wasn't she?

"You're home, onii-chan!" The snow fairy danced to the sitting young man and draped her arms over his shoulders from behind, resting her chin atop his head. "You wanna come over to my room? You can do your homework there so Tohsaka and Saber won't bother you!"

"Maybe later, Illya." Shirou answered her with a nervous chuckle. Her sisterly affection for him bordered on suffocating sometimes. "I'll think about it after dinner."

"I don't think so!" Rin was quick to intervene, bringing her knuckles down on the table to get Shirou' attention back on her. "You have time to make up for, Emiya-kun. I don't care if you got held back by someone, these lessons are invaluable to a progressing magus like yourself. Besides," A light blush tinged her cheeks as her voice became firmer, "It won't allow my familiar to remain weak."

"I can give you lessons in magic arts if you want, onii-chan." Illya told the young Emiya, nuzzling her nose against his ear for a creepy effect. Shirou had to crush the urge to shake her off of him from the light brush of contact. "I can do a better job than a second rate magus like Tohsaka-san."

"Watch the things you say, little girl." Rin hissed in response to her blunt insult. "There are no giants for you to hide behind anymore."

"That's okay." The snow fairy smiled confidently, "Onii-chan will protect me." The way she clung against him made Rin and Saber's expressions tighten. There were advantages to playing the part of a sweet little sister and they weren't liking how Illya knowingly abused such privileges on a daily basis, especially when they happened to be around to see it. Perhaps if her motives were genuinely well intentioned it would not have been so hard to bear, however, Illya's attempts to claim Shirou as her own in the past were undoubtedly sinister in nature, and the most horrifying part of it all was that she honestly found nothing wrong about her own schemes in the end.

Saber's protective instincts kicked in, "Einsbern, refrain from laying against him. You are bothering him." She made her way around the table and grabbed the pale girl from beneath her shoulders in an effort to pull her away, but she clung tightly, yanking Shirou back by the neck in the process.

"Ungh..." Shirou placed his hands around Illya's to try and loosen her grip to no avail. "...I should have...predicted this..." He swiveled his gaze over to Rin, hoping that she could find it within her heart to assist him before he could die of asphyxiation, but unfortunately she had vanished from her sitting spot in front of him and had gone to attend to other matter like-

"Is the food almost ready, Sakura?" Shirou heard his master's voice ring sweetly from behind him almost as if to spite him.

The junior replied in a soft voice, unfazed by the life and death struggle taking place behind her , "Just a few more minutes, onesan."

...And the world suddenly seemed so cold at that moment...

* * *

**_{FATE---STAY---NIGHT}_**

* * *

"What was it with today?" Shirou muttered as he slid the door of his room open slowly. Dinner was hectic this evening as Illya had a ball provoking Saber and Tohsaka with her words. The verbal sparring between the three gave way to a silent exchange of looks between Shirou and Sakura as they dined on without a word. The plum haired kohai had been behaving oddly ever since they had gotten back from the school and Shirou could not help, but feel as though that young woman that had been harassing him earlier had something to do with it. The look in Sakura's eyes every time he caught her looking at him from across the table was like a sort of silent pleading. He wasn't given the time to investigate the matter since Rin had immediately dragged him away to her room after everyone had finished, though it didn't seem like he would have been able get a word out of the junior about it if he had confronted her. She had been doing all she could to remain inconspicuous.

"It's probably nothing too serious...I hope." He walked in, closing the door behind him and reached under his shirt to peel it off. After folding the second skin, he dropped it to the floor and proceeded over to his futon with a light stretch of his arms before kneeling over it to lay down, but something unusual caught his eye. Particularly the person curled up in the corner of his room, casually reading a book as though it were the most natural place in the world for her to engage in such an activity. Even kneeling there a few feet away, shirtless, she did not appear to be disturbed by his presence in the least. Although, technically, she would have been considered the cause of the disturbance in this situation to begin with.

"Rider?" Shirou cocked his head to the side as he called her name, not conscious of the way his left hand sought out his shirt as he kept his eyes on the plum haired siren.

"Good evening, Emiya." The dark servant greeted him, her eyes remaining on the pages of her book. "It took you a while to return."

"You've been waiting here for me?" Shirou asked timidly, which was natural considering who he was speaking to. Rider did not just lie in wait for people to come to her unless she was plotting something seriously life changing for them; usually of the fatal variety. Not that he expected Rider to just set down her book and come at him with iron nail in hand to end his pitiful life, but he wasn't exactly expecting her to inform him that she had been harboring intense feelings of passionate love for him and was intending to act on them either. Oh, but he did dream.

"Since you arrived, yes." Rider replied, setting her book down on the floor beside her.

"Why didn't you just come out and approach me?"

Rider frowned at his question as though the answer should have been so obvious to him, "Because Sakura-sama does not like it when we meet, and it is likely that she would have been somewhere nearby if I had come to seek you out."

"It isn't like we're always together." A rather amusing reply when one considered that Sakura Matou was _so_ capable of remedying those circumstances. Don't think too hard about that one, by the way. It would just give you nightmares.

"Of course," Rider's lips twitched upward into a subtle smirk, "Which is why I had opted for awaiting your arrival within your _bedroom_." The way she emphasized her final word made the hair on the back of Shirou's neck tingle for some reason. She had a talent for that. "Here is a domain where we can meet privately without any obstruction."

Shirou had once again become self conscious of the fact that he was kneeling over his futon, half naked. Perhaps it had a lot to do with the fact that Rider's eyes were no longer on her book, but rather on his masculine form. "Erm..." He massaged the back of his neck nervously, his body temperature rising in his gradually increasing state of embarrassment. "...Fine...I guess. So, uh, what is it that you wanted to tell me?"

"You met with an interesting character this afternoon, didn't you?" Her inquiry made the young Emiya's eyes widen slightly in surprise. He had completely put that _'Luvia'_ girl out of his mind after his long session with Tohsaka, so having her come up in a conversation was in the least of his expectations. Hey, wait a second.

"How did you know about that?"

"I happened to be observing from afar." The dark servant answered. The way she casually went about answering him just gave off the impression that it was nothing more than a mere past time for her to watch him from distant places while he was totally unaware of it, and that sent off all sorts of messages that Shirou was definitely not comfortable with. He thought his issues with privacy could go no further when Saber decided to relieve his shadow of its duties, but that was a story for another day.

"What _do_ you do all day?" He narrowed his eyes at her suspiciously.

"It depends on my mood." Rider dismissed his curiosity quickly before clearing her throat. "Getting back to what is _important_, why did she approach you?"

Shirou's throat tightened at her question, thinking back on the absurd request that was made to him by the mysterious, blonde woman. He wasn't exactly sure why Rider happened to be so interested in his own private business, it was hard enough to have anything private as it was, but she certainly was not to type to have these sort of meetings on whim so it brought a lingering anxiety in the back of his mind that his peaceful days were nearing to a close. Whatever the reason, he just prayed it wasn't related to anything life threatening. He was presented with enough of those problems simply using the shower.

"It wasn't really anything important. Just a...stupid request." Not willing to release anymore information, Shirou kept his mouth clamped shut as he stared down Rider, awaiting a response from her. It was a tense few seconds being stared back at by those fearsomely, intense orbs. Unaware of Rider's true identity, Shirou had absolutely no idea how incredibly badass he was for even considering such a feat. Luckily for him, Rider decided to break the silence between them before he started to feel faint under her gaze.

"A request?" She mused, stroking her chin inquiringly in a silent request for more information.

"Why do you ask?" Shirou pressed on his own inquiry, beating her to the punch. "Are you keeping something from me?"

"Nothing fatal."

Shirou felt a bead of sweat form at her cryptic reply, "So then, you are keeping something from me. Tell me what's going on."

A smirk crossed Rider's features, much like that of a fisherman feeling a promising tug on their rod. "Allow me personal possession over your sport bike and I'll tell you." At her sudden proposition Shirou's tense expression immediately went blank.

"..."

"..."

"Rider...leave my room." Shirou spoke dully to her behind a steely glare. His response to Rider's offer left her with disappointment as her frown implied. "I should have known that this was another one of your schemes." He laid on his futon and brought the covers over him with a humph, rolling on to his side with his back to her, grumbling, "Get your own bike if you want one so bad."

"But, Emiya, are you not curious?" He became aware of how close she had become as her lips brushed along the tip of his earlobe. Apparently she had gone from sitting in the corner to hovering over him within the short space of time that he had turned his back on her. Taking notice of how her plum haired draped over him like a silk sheet, the young man felt his libido reacting far too naturally for his own liking. Damn his hormones, they were a curse to him and every one of his kind!

"What is there to be curious about?" He inwardly patted himself on the back for keeping control over his voice.

"Why would that girl be so interested in your school? You've never seen her there before, and she stands out far too much for an ordinary individual...doesn't she?"

"How am I supposed to know?" He closed his eyes with a scowl. "It's not like I care. My business with her is over."

"We'll see." The shivers left him when she pulled back from his ear and he heard her steps lead away from him before the door to his room opened, but it did not close. "You in particular should understand that rare meetings are not made possible through chance, but with a scheme at work."

"Are you telling me to be cautious?"

"No." Rider's words carried a smirk. "I'm telling you not to accept things at face value." With that advice imparted on him, she slid the door shut behind her.

* * *

**_The Following Morning_**

* * *

"...In all seriousness..." Shirou's words died in the back of his throat as he came face to face with _her _at the front gate of the school courtyard. Somehow, he felt that Rider was smiling at him from someplace in the distance and now that he knew that she kept tabs on him during the day he was tempted to turn his head and try to spot her among the background scenery. Paranoia was a wonderful feeling, was it not? Of course, being the stubborn young man that Emiya was, he was not about to let things go as Rider predicted. He would not allow her the satisfaction.

"You," Luvia jabbed an accusing finger at him as she spoke, "didn't show up yesterday!"

"Yeah...so?" Shirou responded dully. Perhaps if he was nonchalant about it she would pass him off as a jerk and stop bothering with him.

"I gave you the address. Why didn't you come to confirm with me?" She narrowed her eye in annoyance as if though she were speaking to a defiant child. Shirou didn't think about it before since their initial meeting was so unexpected, but this girl really reminded him of a certain magus he knew. It was almost as if they had been cut from the same cloth.

"You told me to come if I considered it." He pulled the card she shoved into his pocket the day before and held it out to her to return it. "I didn't bother. If you need a butler, then you'll have to scout someone else for the position. I'm already busy with so many other things." He realized that the card was still in his hand he held it out a little closer so she could take notice, but she openly ignored it, fixing him with a glare of displeasure. It didn't look like she was taking his answer too well, which was understandable. No one liked rejection after all, but why was she so focused on him?

"Um..." He poked her shoulder with the card hoping that would get some sort of reaction out of her.

_...No response..._

"Anyway, I've got classes to attend so..." He carefully placed the card on her shoulder and walked around her. "Take care." He left her behind and proceeded to enter the courtyard, but before he could set foot on the school grounds he was jerked backwards by a sudden yank from the back of his collar.

"What kind of man are you?" Luvia's voice questioned him from behind. "Where is your chivalry?"

"I think you're getting two different concepts conf—URK!" Shirou had no time to react as he was fluidly pulled into a headlock, courtesy of Luvia's handy work and quite professional at that. He gripped at her arms to pry them off to no avail, finding the back of his head pressed into the cushion of her chest tighter and tighter as the seconds went on.

"Here I am, asking you for your assistance out of the humbleness of my heart," Her voice was surprisingly calm despite the fact that she was handling a squirming young male in her arms, "And all you do is reject me. My impression of you has certainly gone down a notch, Mr. Shirou!"

"Wait!" Shirou choked out. "H-Hold on!"

"Yes?" She purred.

"Tell you what..." The young Emiya looked around for any onlookers before going on, "Tell me why you need me and I'll consider it...okay?" Yes, it was certainly against his best judgment, but the situation wasn't offering him anymore choices. Besides, oxygen was becoming a very precious resource to him at the moment.

"Wonderful!" The moment she accepted his terms he felt himself drop to the concreted sidewalk as she loosened her grip around his neck. The floor was, as always, unforgiving in its harsh ways, but right now he was grateful being anywhere aside from the lethal grip of Luvia's arms. What Shirou didn't expect, however, was Luvia's body dropping on him a moment later. The conclusions his mind drew as to why were not very comforting.

"R-Rider?" He raised his head and looked around to find the sultry servant nowhere to be seen. _...I guess Rider isn't at fault after all. _He turned his head to get a look at the unconscious girl's face to find her eyes closed peacefully...and a sliver of drool hanging from her lower lip. "Um...fatigue?"

"..."

_"Well, this got weird really fast..."_

* * *

_**{FATE---STAY---NIGHT}**_

* * *

Luviagelita Edelfelt brought the bowl to her lips and tilted her head back, gulping down the rest of its contents audibly before letting it clatter on the polished, wooden surface of the circular cafe table. Shirou Emiya stared at her from across the table with a slight frown on his lips as he shifted his weight to the back of his chair, tilting back and forth, with his patience gradually wearing thin. For someone who was just lying on him an hour ago, she was looking particularly healthy. Getting her to the restaurant they were now dining at was no simple feat, mind you. She was unconscious the entire trip so he was forced to carry her on his back the entire way, which was an awkward chore for him since everyone that he happened to pass on the way felt so obliged to openly comment on his situation as though he was deaf to take note of what they were saying about him, and some of those observations were not exactly within the category of _'tasteful'_.

"Excuse me." Shirou spoke up, having watched her enjoy herself long enough at the expense of his life. "I don't think I can spare anymore of my time with this, so could you just hurry it up a bit?" _I can already see a private lecture with Rin in the near future when she realizes I won't be around to meet her on the roof during lunch recess. _For sensible reasons that all could not argue with, an image came to Shirou's mind that involved Rin holding him over the ledge of her favorite skyscraper with a devilish smirk on her face. Words were simply not enough.

Luviagelita swallowed what was left in her mouth and shot him with a cool look. "I'm sure you have a little more respect than that, Shirou. It's only natural that a gentleman waits on the woman." She dabbed her lips with her handkerchief before going on, "Besides, you told me that you would listen to my proposition."

"That was close to an hour ago." Shirou pointed out quickly, feeling the anxiety rise within him as he imagined the mess that awaited him when he returned home. When Rin found out he was missing, then Saber would undoubtedly be informed about it and when that happened... "Late night training at the dojo with an angry Saber..." The young Emiya muttered to himself, his gaze falling to the table.

"Did you just mutter something?" He heard Luvia question him curiously.

Shirou shook his head, "Nothing important."

"If you say so." The sandy blonde allowed his answer to slide by without any further concern, pushing her plate to the side and folding her hands on the table as she slightly leaned forward, "Thank you for the food, Shirou."

"Yeah," He nodded, ignoring the weightless feeling within his pocket, "You're welcome."

"Now that we have that out of the way," Her lips curled into the smug grin that he had come to identify her by, "I have selected you to be my personal butler. Do you accept?"

"..." Shirou blinked.

"What?" Luvia cocked her head to the side, confused by his silence. "Won't you say something? What's the matter with you?"

"Your tone is no different from yesterday!" Shirou cried out in disbelief. "If I knew you were just going to come at me like this again I wouldn't have accepted to this." _And I might have saved a bit of money on the side, too._

Letting out a exasperated sigh, Shirou stood up from his seat. Getting back now would make him late, but it was better than being absent for the day and if he was lucky he could just slip in through the window as one of the first floor classes were being dismissed just as he had seen school delinquents do in the past. With that plan in mind he turned to leave, but the firm grip of a slender hand around his arm held him back before he could get far enough from the table.

"Why are you turning your back on me?" The voice that came from behind him did not register with him properly. It did not sound like it had come from the haughty young lady that he had been sitting with a few seconds prior, and yet as he turned around to face the person that was keeping him from departing from the restaurant he found himself faced with Luvia Edelfelt. She looked to him with eyes that accused him of betrayal.

For a moment he felt flustered, "D-Don't look at me that way!" He hissed at her, suddenly becoming aware of the dark looks that were being directed at him from the other customers. It was very likely that they were all getting the wrong impression about his character and Luvia's refusal to unhand him was only tossing more coal into that fire. "S-Stop it. You're causing a scene." He made another attempt to tug his arm away and failed.

"Ignore them." Luvia pulled him toward her. "This matter only concerns you and me and I intend to have it remain that way for as long as I can help it."

"Huh?" Shirou's throat closed up at her words, unsure of what to make of them. "...Why are you so..."

"I did not make this decision on whim, Shirou. There is no one else I would come to for this position, because I trust no one else." Her glare intensified, "I trust you."

"We've only met." He argued in an attempt to discourage her. She was so sincere in the claim that she made and it flattered him, but it also brought him extreme discomfort to know that a woman he had never met before thought so highly of him. "I'm sorry, but...you can't just expect me to accept such a bizarre offer. I mean, there are schools for this sort of thing, responsibilities... and quite frankly I'm not interested in serving someone for the rest of my life."

"Is that all that is holding you back?" Luvia's tone had become much more hopeful at his response, a development that he had not foreseen with the way he practically just turned her down. At this point he was beginning to get the suspicion that the word _'No'_ was a term that was non-existent within her vocabulary. Was there a reason why his mind kept drawing comparisons between Tohsaka and this Luvia girl? It was beginning to irk him somewhat.

Seeing the confident smirk return to the lovely Edelfelt's face, Shirou felt as though he had been brought into a twisted match of ping pong with the way her emotions kept on bouncing back, "Luvia, somehow I think you're misunderstanding my position-"

"Not at all!" She told him, gripping his hand to bring him closer, "I'm not asking you to make a permanent career out of this. I simply need you to remain by my side until I've finished handling my business here."

"Hmm?" He quirked a brow, "Remain by your side?"

"Not in the literal sense." Luvia told him, rolling her eyes at his misunderstanding. "You see, I came to this country alone. My sisters think that I've decided to spend my vacation at the academy, but I've actually come here to settle a personal score with a long time rival of mine."

Shirou felt himself deflate at her words, "So you basically rushed into this situation without bothering to prepare yourself and you need someone to hold your hand while you go about your business in this foreign country."

A furious blush crept up on Luvia's cheeks at his spot on assumption. This guy was much sharper than she originally believed him to be, "W-Well, putting it extremely; y-yes. That is my situation." She turned up her nose with a humph.

While this was not all too hard to digest, there was something about her explanation that was bothering him. In fact, it had been nagging at him since he picked up the bill for her breakfast. It was not that he was worried about her well being, gods no, but- "Um...so how are you supporting yourself?" His question caused her lips to curl into another confident smirk. He could swear that she had done that enough times to burn the image in his mind without any hope of ever getting it out.

"No need to worry about that, Shirou..." She let go of his hand to cross her arms proudly, once again bringing to his attention just how well endowed she was, "I've purchased myself a home within the area." Her reply got another blink out of him.

"...You did?"

"Of course." She told him as though it were the most obvious course of action to take in her situation. "I need a place to live while I conduct my business, don't I?"

"Why not stay at a hotel then?"

"That would just bring me trouble I don't need."

Shirou felt his left eye twitch at her response, "And buying a house is just so much more convenient, right?"

"You appear to get it, Shirou." Luvia nodded cheerfully.

He threw his arms up, irritated by her attitude. "I was being sarcastic!"

"Huh?" The blonde woman leaned back at his sudden outburst before narrowing her eyes at him angrily, "And what is your issue?"

"How could you possibly waste money like that? How could you be so inconsiderate toward your family's finances?"

"A waste of money you say?" She brought her face right up to his with a scowl, "All of this money has come from my own personal funds, and for you to accuse me of being careless with my money when I am investing it in an important goal is an insult. Besides, such a measly purchase is of no expense to a noble like myself." She drew back to turn her head snobbishly.

"Then what do you need me for?" Shirou asked, feeling a little less significant in the scale of things. "Go hire yourself a professional if you have so much money to blow!"

She snapped her head back to glare at him, "But I want _you_!"

"I'm not for sale!" He made his turn to leave, but for the second time he felt a hand clutch at his wrist, preventing him from leaving the restaurant. This girl was a fierce one, that much was clear to him. "...If I managed to escape from you now...you would just wait for me in front of my school tomorrow, wouldn't you?"

"You appear to get it, Shirou." Luvia answered him, and to this response Shirou closed his eyes tightly as an inner struggle began. Perhaps it was because he felt a little sorry for her. Despite the fact that he already made his impression of her as an arrogant young woman, fully capable of handling herself, there was something about knowing that she was out here all alone that made him feel uncomfortable. It brought him discomfort, because to abandon her now would mean that he was deliberately turning his back on a person that was practically crying out for help, even if she would probably never admit to as much.

On the other hand, he still wasn't entirely sure what he would be getting himself into if he actually did accept her proposition. Where was the sense in doing a good deed for someone when it meant returning to a home filled with angry females? Actually, scratch that last sentence because it wasn't quite doing him any justice. Where was the sense in doing a good deed for _Luviagelita Edelfelt_ when it possibly meant returning to a home taken over by a mob of angry women who...well...somehow going along with the rest of that sentence feels highly unadvised.

Well, you could not help but admire Shirou Emiya's knack for heroism-or was stupidity the proper word for it?

* * *

**_[Returning to the Emiya Estate later that night...]_**

* * *

Shirou crept in through the front door of the house, peering around the corner of the hall before closing the door behind him as softly as he possibly could without alerting any of the girls of his late arrival. It was just about time for dinner so the girls must have been eating in the dining room. He should have had more than enough time to run over to his room and drop off his uniform without being spotted by the-

"Back already, Shirou?"

"WUH!" Shirou jumped back into the door, dropping the bag in his hand and clutching his pounding heart when Rider decided to materialize beside him without warning. The way her glasses glinted in the light as a smirk came upon her lovely face brought a bit of nausea to the young man. Somehow he was beginning to miss the point in time when the foundation of their relationship was keeping a distance from each other. Where had those wonderful days gone?

"You met with her again." Rider's words came out more as a statement than an inquiry. "And your friendly nature got the best of you."

Shirou frowned at her tone, "You sound as if you knew this would happen."

"I was counting on it." The dark servant replied, playing with a lock from her inhumanely, long mane of lavender hair. "I've developed a strong fondness for that part of you, Emiya, even overlooking the occasional stupidity that comes of it."

"Was that supposed to be a compliment?"

"Whatever you make of it." Rider answered him with another smirk. "I should tell you now; Sakura-sama is making her way down here to investigate why I've left the table. You should make yourself scarce."

"Now you tell me." Shirou narrowed his eyes at her slightly for a moment before taking her advice and vanishing from the scene just as the aforementioned kohai walked in from the hall. Sakura saw her servant standing at the entrance alone and asked, "What seems to be the matter, Rider?"

"I thought I saw a mouse scampering through here." Rider answered her casually. Her excuse got the hairs on the back of Sakura's neck standing up on end.

"A-A mouse?" She brought her hands to her chest, eyes wide in fright. "N-No way!"

A warm smile crossed the dark servant's lips at her master's reaction in a fashion fit for an older sister, "Though it might have just been my imagination now that I think about it."

Sakura relaxed, "I sure hope so." She let out a sigh of relief, plucking at the sides of her skirt nervously. "Actually, for a moment I thought you might have heard sempai come in." Her eyes swiveled to meet those of Rider's subtly, "You wouldn't know where he is, would you, Rider?"

"Emiya?" Rider feigned ignorance, allowing her head to tilt to the side slightly as she stroked her chin. "He's probably out working. I see no other reason why he would be late for dinner." Sakura's expression darkened somewhat at her assumption, though it softened a bit as she nodded with Rider's logic.

"You're right..." Sakura nodded her head again, more to herself than anyone else and her servant caught the odd gesture, "That must be why sempai is late for dinner." She rested her hands on her lap and giggled, "I-I guess there really was no reason for me to worry after all!"

Rider only stared at the young woman and turned her head away with a sigh. Many of the residents of the household did not realize it because the young Matou concealed it so well with her clumsy nature, but there was truly more to Sakura's cleverness than she let up. She was perhaps even a step above Rin in the department of wit and Rider knew it all too well. Perhaps that was why the dark servant felt a chill run up her neck as she and Sakura engaged in a quiet staring match. The general impression that everyone had of her relationship with Shirou was that there was no relationship. Because of this Rider found it easy to meet with the young Emiya whenever she desired, without having to deal with the other women and their open possessiveness for him.

For Sakura to inquire of her about Shirou's whereabouts would mean that the young woman was somehow aware of something existing between them, and considering how jealous she could become when it came to that idiot's affections Rider had the sinking feeling that there might have been trouble awaiting her in the near future.

"Is something the matter, Sakura?" The tall servant asked of her master, resisting the sudden urge to place her hand on the side of her neck. It was a nervous tick that her sisters cursed her with, thanks to the cruel and unusual methods they loved to employ whenever they punished her in the past. There was probably no need to note that this was a story better saved for another time...ahem...

Sakura shook her head innocently, "No. Why do you ask, Rider?"

"Ah..." Rider shook her head quickly, a sweat drop hanging from the side of her head as she replied, "No particular reason." She inwardly prayed that Sakura would have mercy on her and let that unguarded moment slide, but those prayers were unanswered as her master stepped up to her and opened her mouth to spea-

"_**Looks like I was a little later coming back than I thought I'd be!" **_Rider let out a sigh of relief once Sakura's attention was drawn to the direction of the dining room by the sound of Shirou Emiya's care free announcement. Resembling a child having lost interest in an old toy, she completely forgot about what she was going to say to Rider and simply walked away to go greet her sempai. The way she was so easily drawn off by the thought of him being near was slightly disturbing as it was charming in its own twisted way.

"A hero to the end, eh?" The dark servant crossed her arms and contemplated whether to follow after her master. _It might draw suspicion if I back out now..._

Meanwhile, as Rider concerned herself with her next move in the hall a heavy air settled within the dining quarters as Shirou took his seat at the table with his dysfunctional family. Saber was seated at his right, looking to him rather intently with Tohsaka at his left, popping rice into her mouth with her chopsticks as she fixed him with a look of suspicious interest. Illya smiled at him from across the table, in all likelihood thinking of ways to take advantage of the situation after Saber and Rin were done with their interrogation of him, and the Taiga was nowhere to be seen.

"Nice of you to finally join us, Emiya-kun." Rin commented casually, her eyes crinkling in cheer, though the nature of that cheerfulness felt somewhat artificial. Not that he was going to comment on it. The waters felt lukewarm right now, but there was no telling what sort of reaction he would get if he picked away at the illusion. His main focus now was to try and keep his eyes from meeting with Saber's for the remainder of their dinner, which was already proving to be difficult with the unease she was giving him. The lovely knight was clearly attempting to draw his attention to her so she could read through his facade and get the facts for his sudden change in routine. Rin was trying to lull him into a false sense of security so that he would let his guard down and allow himself to be open for whatever sort of interrogation she had in mind.

_The last person I need now is-_ "S-Sakura!" Shirou tried not to sound intimidated by the presence of his kohai as she made her entrance in the tense scene. If there was anyone who could jeopardize his safety right now, it was her. She was with him when he was approached by Luviagelita the day before and if she happened to bring up that particular instance out of suspicion there was no telling what conclusions Saber and Rin might jump to in order to muscle him around.

"You finally made it back, sempai." The plum haired kohai greeted him with a sweet smile that calmed him of his fears, "It's a good thing that Fuji-sensei decided not to show up for dinner, or your share of the food might have already been gone."

Glad to have an unknowing ally on his side, Shirou scratched the back of his head with a relieved grin, "I suppose luck is on my side today. Heh, heh." The irony of his own words stung so much that he felt his stomach clench up like a tight fist. "Well then, thank you for the foo-"

"Shirou." Saber spoke up before he could commence eating, "Neko-san must be working you harder now for you to come two hours later than usual."

"Um..." Shirou stiffened, resisting the urge to flinch as he kept his head from turning to regard this servant, "Actually that wasn't the case." He told her truthfully, reaching down to pick up his chopsticks from the table with a surprisingly steady hand. "Mitsuzuri called me sometime during work to ask me if I could help her with something, so I went out to meet her after I was done."

"Hm, Ayako?" Rin perked up with new found interest at the mention of her rival/ friend. "What did she need from _you_?"

_Looks like she took the bait..._ The young Emiya inwardly smirked at his own genius. Drawing the magus's attention to the archery captain would naturally dissolve their suspicion of him and spark interest in Mitsuzuri's motives instead. He may have been dense, but he knew how to cover his ass when his life depended on it, "She was feeling a little under the weather so she needed some help carrying groceries back to her house."

"And why couldn't her brother do it for her?" Rin cracked like a whip, leaning over to him with one eyebrow raised in suspicion.

_How am I going to- _"He went out with someone!" Shirou blurted out whatever came to mind.

_**Bum-Bum-Bummm...**_

_Rin and Sakura exchanged a long look of disbelief._

* * *

_**{FATE---STAY---NIGHT}**_

* * *

"_Shirou-kun?" _Mitsuzuri's voice came from the other side of the line hinting at a mixture of surprise and pleasure to know that he had finally found a reason to make use of her cell number, _"Well, ain't this something? I never would have guessed that it was you calling me." _A bit of resentment crept into her voice in those last words and it was not lost on Shirou Emiya.

"I'm sorry about that..." Shirou said sheepishly, unable to hide his embarrassment. "How are you?"

"_I'm fine. You just caught me as I got out from the shower."_

"Oh...great." He paused, shoving the enticing image that took form to the back of his mind before it could distract him from the dire matter at hand, "Um, I'm sorry to put you on the spot like this, but would you mind doing me an important favor?"

"_A favor?" _The archery captain echoed him with mild fascination, _"What kind of favor?"_

"Well..." The young man took a moment to massage the back of his neck, "Chances are you might be receiving a call from Rin or Sakura sometime tonight."

"_A call? What for?"_

"They're going to ask if I met with you in the afternoon."

"_But why would they ask me something like that?"_

"Because I told them that I went with you to the store today after I finished work and I really need you to cover for me and tell that it's true."

"_Hmm...sounds a bit shady, Shirou." _Ayako purred mischievously.

"It's complicated..." Shirou sighed, inwardly praying that she would go along with the farce.

"_...Mmmyeah, I wouldn't mind helping you out." _She responded to his plea after thinking it over. _"But you're gonna make this up to me later."_

"Oh, of course." Shirou replied before hearing something come from the other side of the line that sounded like an evil feline meowing in victory. It startled him, really.

"_Myahaha! Look forward to it, Emiya!__"__**-Click...**_

Shirou held the phone away and looked at it after getting back that cryptic message...

…_**...**_

…_**...**_

…_**...**_

"_Digging yourself a hole, Shirou?"_

Dropping the phone to the floor, Shirou twisted around at the waist in fright, "WHA!" He saw Rider sitting in the corner of his room with a book in her hand and deflated like an unsealed air balloon. "R-Rider? You need to stop sneaking into my room like this!"

"Quiet. You'll attract unwanted attention." The dark servant told him with a finger against her lip, "So that was the archery captain, eh?" Rider licked her lips once she spoke of Mitsuzuri, bringing up unfortunate implications within Shirou's mind, "How was she?"

"Fine...she was alright..." Shirou answered her, albeit, reluctantly. " Er, why?"

"I might pay her a visit tonight." Rider answered him without restraint, "I'm feeling particularly thirsty and I think she'd satisfy me just well."

Shirou stood up and approached Rider's corner after hearing her reply, kneeling in front of her with a menacing, "Don't think of hurting her..."

A subtle smirk came across the dark servant's lips as she looked up at Shirou's threatening expression. If he lowered himself any further it would have almost seemed as though he was pinning her against the wall from the view point of anyone who happened to enter the room at that very moment. It amused her to think as much. "Even if I did plan to harm her, you wouldn't be able to stop me." Her words were cold yet hinting at playfulness. The only other person that could accomplish that was Kotomine, rest his soul.

"I've come a long way since we last fought, Rider." Shirou leaned over her with a scowl, "I don't need Saber's power to handle you anymore."

"I'm tempted to test that theory," Rider pushed her palms against the floorboards and rose up, forcing Shirou to back off and rise up with her. His muscles tightened as they engaged in a stare down, but after what seemed like a lifetime, Rider chuckled and closed her book. "Unfortunately I must put temptation aside if I want Sakura-sama to remain happy, although..." The lascivious shift in her expression made the young Emiya question just what she meant by testing his theory, "...it probably would make it easier for me to claim your bike if I did."

"Y-Yeah?" Shirou stammered, his cheeks tingling with heat for reasons he could not explain, "Well its not happening. If you want a bike so bad use the shopping bike with the basket, but my sports bike is off limits!" _Especially to you...speed maniac._

"You say that now, Shirou, but you'll find yourself changing your tone soon."

"Um-" Shirou raised a finger in confusion, but the servant to her leave of him, walking straight into the door of his room and passing through it like a ghost. "...Why does she keep on doing that to me?"

* * *

Contrary to what many believed, Rin Tohsaka did have someone that she held deep admiration for despite the smug front that she maintained for the sake of her _'Honor Student'_ image on a daily basis, and it might have been somewhat startling information to discover that it was none other than the very individual that she relentlessly teased every instance that the moment demanded that it be done. Yes, Shirou Emiya was an unlikely prominent figure in the lovely magus's life embodying qualities in his character that she secretly desired for herself. He was reckless and impulsive, characteristics that he could only look good with. Anybody else would be called a suicidal fool attempting to achieve the feats that he lived to walk away from, but he simply made it heroic. He made the impossible only appear to be difficult whenever he was present...but he was far from perfect, and she certainly made that clear to him whenever she felt it was truly necessary.

Coincidentally, checking her wrist watch on the roof of the high school, Rin felt that particular time coming up. It had already been six minutes and counting that she had been kept waiting for that dumb-

"Aha!" Rin exclaimed when the door to the stairwell finally swung open to reveal her tardy lunch partner, "Emiya-kun, you unscrupulous jer-" She felt the wit that she was normally blessed with abandon her when she found an unexpected addition holding hands with the red-haired student, one that she was all too familiar with and the sight of her did not sit well in her stomach.

"What...what a surprise!" An expression of unconcealed bewilderment betrayed her inner feelings and the other young woman smiled because of it, "Ayako." She nearly hissed the name of her self proclaimed rival, "What..." Rin changed her expression into a convincing grin as she held up her hands questioningly in an attempt to stall while her mind devised he proper way to go about the situation, "What are you doing up here?"

The magus's eyes swiveled discreetly to zero in on the unwelcoming sight of Mitsuzuri's hand gripping one of Shirou's a little too casually. The fact that the young man was allowing it in front of her of all people only made the sour feeling in Rin's stomach a little more irritating. _...Up here with Shirou...holding hands with him..._

Shirou massaged the back of his neck nervously with his free hand-his other still held in the archery captain's firm grip-and went on to explain, "I ran into her as I was getting out..." Tohsaka blinked when the young Emiya suddenly flinched, correcting himself, "I-I asked her to accompany us for lunch."

Mitsuzuri nodded her head with the usual smirk that she was known by, "Yeah. Emiya is so generous! I was going to skip since I had nothing to eat, but he offered to share his bento with me so I couldn't turn him down."

Rin nodded her head, feigning understanding, "Oh, did he?" A chill passed through Shirou when his master swiveled her eyes to him sharply. He had gotten that look from her before, usually when she did not take well to a particular development. Luckily for him the archery captain decided to take the heat off of him by drawing the attention of the pigtailed magus back to her.

"So this is where you've been hiding, huh?" Mitsuzuri finally loosened her grip on Shirou's hand to come between him and Rin's glaring. She placed her hands on her hips as a breeze blew through them and did a quick cursory of the area as though the roof was all new to her. "Hm. Gotta say that I never saw this coming."

"What?" Both Rin and Shirou inquired at the same time before glancing at each other.

"You and Emiya." The archery captain responded to Rin, tossing her chin over in the young man's direction when she did. Her choice of words naturally gave the two the wrong impression about where she was going with this. With the exception of Fujimaru and Issei, no one was aware of the lovely magus's living arrangements with Shirou, which could only mean that she was implying something inconvenient for their school images like a relationship.

Rin was quick to suspect as much, "Me and Emiya-kun?" She echoed the smirking Mitsuzuri, stepping closer to her with a barely noticeable tint of pink coloring her cheeks. Not that she was particularly against the idea of the two of them being an item, but she would be the last to admit to such feelings in front of another person and someone spreading rumors about the two of them being lovey-dovey would ruin her reputation of being the untouchable idol of the school, which she secretly took pride in. "What is that supposed to mean, Ayako?" _Damn...does it seem that obvious?_

Mitsuzuri blinked before jabbing her thumb at Shirou, replying, "Aren't you two friends?" Her innocent response caused the two to deflate. "Emiya usually kept Issei company in the student council office, back before you two started coming in contact."

"What's this about?" Rin crossed her arms, one eyebrow raised in mild suspicion. She was not liking how Mitsuzuri was digging around. The archery captain was patiently poking holes in an attempt to provide herself with some sort of opening. Whatever it was she was pursuing, Rin got the feeling that she did not want her to reach it. "Ryudo's been complaining to you about losing his lunch buddy?" The magus humored her with a jab at the shrine heir.

Mitsuzuri shook her head, "Nah." She answered Rin with a dismissive wave of her hand, "It's got nothing to do with him."

Shirou, sensing that an opportunity to escape had presented itself, took a step toward the stairway door behind him. This was a carefully devised infiltration attempt and he was well aware of it. Tohsaka seemed to figure as much and was trying her best to repel Mitsuzuri's advances, unaware that he was a trump card in the plan. If he could just slip away somehow-

"Now that you mention it," Shirou took another step to the door, one that hadn't gone unnoticed by the magus, "I haven't seen Issei in a whi-"

"You!" Rin pointed at him, stopping him on the spot with the effectiveness of a-wait, why did this feel a lot like deja vu? "Where do you think you're going?"

"It slipped my mind." He lied, returning to his original spot. _This definitely won't end well..._

The archery captain saw her chance. "I've decided it then," Mitsuzuri suddenly announced out of the blue, drawing Rin's attention back to her with a quizzical expression, "I'm going to spend my lunch periods up here with you guys from now on."

The magus blinked... "Th...This is a bit sudden, don't you think?"

"How so?" The other girl asked, intrigued by the question.

"What about Kaede and Yukika?" Rin asked, sure that she had somehow missed someone's name. "Don't you usually spend lunch with them? How are they going to feel if you just suddenly ditch them without telling them?"

Mitsuzuri flashed a smile, "Change is good, yeah?" She placed her hands on her hips and leaned over toward Rin slightly, "What's the matter? Are you against having an extra person keeping you two company?" The question was so loaded that even Shirou was able to pick up the implications without an instruction manual in hand.

Rin hesitated, feeling a bit put on the spot by her question. "Well...er..." She bought her left hand to one of her pigtails, fiddling with it as she thought quickly of a way to get herself out of the hot spot. Her eyes eventually darted toward Shirou, "What do you think, Emiya-kun?" She knew she could depend on him to diffuse the situation.

Ayako Mitsuzuri inwardly cackled at her triumph as she whipped around to smirk at her accomplice, "Alright then! Whaddya say, Emiya? Any objections to the movement?"

Shirou tensed up, having all eyes directed at him expectantly, and swallowed hard before opening his mouth to possibly doom his relationship with Rin Tohsaka forever...not that Mitsuzuri had much of a problem with that.

* * *

It was a quiet walk back home in the rain between Rin and Shirou, under the umbrella that they were sharing as it was arguably the only reason why they were even brushing shoulder. Under different circumstances Rin might have surely went ahead of him to cool off and he would not have blamed her. What happened up on the roof at lunch time could have been considered treason on his part, but a deal was a deal and he had to keep his end of it if Mitsuzuri was going to keep her mouth shut about their conversation the night before.

"I'm sorry..." He apologized to her, getting her to at least spare him a glance She was probably focusing most of her willpower on crushing her anger before it got the best of her and caused her to do something she might feel sour about later.

"Shirou," She addressed him by his first name, setting the tone of their conversation from the get go, "What is going on between you and Ayako?" Cold fury was a frightening sight in a woman and the magus employed it with a masterful elegance.

"N-Nothing. Why?" Shirou asked, feeling a cold pit build within his stomach that made him nauseous.

Rin clutched his arm between her elbow to bring him closer, "You two are getting awfully close." She looked into his eyes with a stony frown, "First the groceries and now you're letting her crush our private lunch periods. It's pissing me off."

"She's a friend, Rin." He shot back at her before adding, "Yours, too, last time I checked."

"You're missing the entire point, idiot." She stopped him in his tracks and whipped around, pressing his back against the gated fence they were walking beside. She leaned in close, making sure that the umbrella was still positioned over their head, "I know all of that, but I don't necessarily want that to change."

"...Erm..."

Rin narrowed her eyes imperceptibly, "Do you?"

"No...definitely not." Shirou answered her.

"Then stop allowing her to take advantage of you." Rin told him before finally backing off from him. They resumed their walk back home, her feeling satisfied that things were settling back into their normal perspective and Shirou gradually coming to the realization that Rider's words were beginning to haunt him every time his situation got worse. The dark servant was likely keeping score from a distance as things progressed.

_Where are you?_ The young Emiya thought, squinting out into the scenery. She did a damn good job of hiding herself, that was for sure. _She could have just been lying to make me uneasy. She'd like that..._

Rin caught him squinting out into the distance and attempted to follow his line of sight to whatever he was looking at. When that failed she shrugged her shoulders and decided it best not to bother asking. There were some things that only idio- ahem - Shirou could see, and she did not want to start becoming a part of that club.

Shirou's thoughts on the matter? _Geez, where the hell is that woman?_

* * *

_**{FATE---STAY---NIGHT}**_

* * *

_**[ To The Answer of that Question ]**_

Shirou entered his room with a sigh, relieved to have gotten through another day of classes with his life intact, somewhat. He just wanted to drop his bag on the floor, slip off his jacket and take a moment to lie in bed and mentally prepare himself for his first day of service to Luviagelita Edelfelt. He lulled his head to the right to stare at the package containing his butler tuxedo, courtesy of the generous young woman, and felt a tinge of excitement stir within him. True, at first he wasn't very excited about the whole thing when she first presented him with the proposition. Having another so called mistress to answer to aside from Tohsaka was about as much of an improvement to his current lifestyle as Saber discovering how the benefits of male enhancement drugs might trigger a substantial increase in their mana replenishing sessions, but it would be for a good cause...sort of, and the uniform was admittedly a nice touch.

"As long as I can keep this from Rin and the others, it shouldn't be too difficult to pull off." He mumbled looking to the ceiling, "Still...Rider is plotting something."

"What?"

"That's what I'm trying to figure out."

"Clever girl."

"She's a real fox."

"Likable though."

"Guess you could say that." Shirou scratched off an itch on the tip of his nose. "I'm not really sure how I...feel...abou..." And it suddenly dawned on him that he was having a conversation with someone. He glanced at his left-

-Rider stared back at him-

He was having a conversation with Rider...traumatizing would have been a severe understatement right now. The proper word for what Shirou felt, coming to the realization that, Rider, his former nemesis, had been laying beside him on his futon without his knowledge long enough to have heard him mumbling to himself and discuss his feelings with him-it could not be pronounced with the human tongue. So he fainted, almost. Rider pinched his cheek before he could completely slip away into the safety net of unconsciousness.

"G-God..." Shirou mumbled in a faint voice, sure to have lost a few years of his life. "You were right next to me. H-How long?"

"Since you laid down." Rider answered in her usual unaffected tone. "I just made myself visible a moment ago."

"Oh. That makes sense." The pale young man chuckled uneasily. "You were invisible. Are you...usually?"

"Yes." Rider nodded, crossing one of her long legs over the other. "I expend less mana that way, and it makes it easier on Sakura-sama." At the mention of his kohai, Shirou perked up and propped himself on his elbows as he looked to the dark servant. Other men would have fought over the chance to have her beside them, but right now Shirou just wanted Rider out of his room before one of the other girls walked in uninvited, Saber being at the top of the watch list.

"So is there a reason why you're becoming a common sight in my room?"

"Is there something wrong with me being here?" She asked with a slight frown, her voice going cold. The young man took that as a warning to switch gears before he earned himself a bit of misery in his future. Much like Saber, Rider had subtle ways of showing her anger and if there was one thing Shirou had noticed about the lavender haired servant, it was that she had issues with rejection...particularly when he had a hand in the rejecting.

"Well, sort of..." He swallowed when Rider's frown became slightly more noticeable, "If Sakura or Saber suddenly walked in I'm sure there would be a problem."

The frown vanished, "That is reasonable." However she made no attempt to leave.

"...So could you leave?"

"Shirou," Rider suddenly spoke in a grim tone, causing the hairs on the back of his neck to shoot up, "Contrary to popular belief, a woman is far from gentle when she comes to love something...or someone. Even the object of her affections has much to fear."

Shirou blinked, sensing another brick wall heading his way. "What do you mean?" He hate asking that question, but hopefully-

Rider smirked, "Just a parting thought." And she vanished, fading away like the ever elusive Cheshire cat, but for some reason Shirou Emiya felt none the wiser than he did a moment ago.

"I wonder if Archer ever had this much trouble with women..." Of course, there was no answer coming his way concerning that matter, though given the nature of such a thought it was hard not to give it some consideration. The young man shook away the idea and sat up.

"No use in wasting my time making sense of it. I'd better head out before Rin tries to pin me down with lessons again."

...

...

The door opened to reveal Luviagelita Edelfelt in all of her haughty glory, "Punctual as well!" She exclaimed to the sharply dressed Shirou Emiya as though his appearance somehow coincided with a list she had been making prior to his arrival. "I certainly do know how to pick them." Her declaration was followed by a conceited laugh that got the young man staring at her, convinced that this woman was toeing the line of being off-center. He just wasn't sure what to make of her.

"So this is where you live, huh?" Shirou mused as he looked left and right at the neighboring houses on the hill. The lovely young woman's property was situated in the much ritzier area of the neighborhood and it certainly reflected well. "Somehow I expected this." He sighed to himself, perking the young woman's ears.

"That sounded unpleasant, Emiya." Luvia said with a slight frown, leaning against the frame of the doorway. "Is there something about my living arrangements that don't agree with you. I may not be able to do much at this point, but minor suggestions are fine." The hint in her voice was hard to place. The young man could not be too sure whether that was sarcasm or if she really intended to hear him out. He opted for the safest route at this stage in the game.

Shirou held both hands out, shaking his head, "No, it's nothing like that. It's just..." He trailed off, setting his gaze toward a familiar mansion higher up the hill. Not that she ever really came through the area anymore since she took it upon herself to take up permanent residence in his home, but knowing Tohsaka's mansion was just a short walk away gave him such an ominous feeling. Thinking back to Luvia he just could not help but inquire, "Any particular reason why this place caught your eye?"

"It just happens to be a convenient location to settle in." She answered him, crossing her arms beneath her generous bust with a somewhat flirtatious smirk. It seemed that this particular quirk in her charm came with her personality so naturally that she thought nothing of the effects it had on those around her. Shirou tried not to make the shift in his attention obvious when she went on, "The person that I'm searching for lives somewhere nearby from what my sources tell me. Oddly she hasn't appeared anywhere yet so I'm a little concerned about how reliable that intel might be."

"Have you been on the lookout all day?"

"Why, yes." She blinked, the smirk never leaving her lips, though for some reason it felt as though it was hanging on her face by a mere thread. "How did you figure?" Her question was asked with a measure of reluctance as though a part of her personally did not want to know the answer.

"Well...your body language for one." He answered her, a gesture to her posture. "You're slightly hunched over even though you probably don't realize it and you've been blinking a little more than normal..." Shirou narrowed his eyes in suspicion as if he recalled something that disturbed him with a frown forming on his lips. "...Kind of like yesterday."

"...Ah..." The young woman caught on to what he was getting at, averting her eyes for a brief moment from embarrassment. "You see..." She searched for an explanation to placate his suspicions, but-

"Luvia...when was the last time you ate?" With the way she simply stared at him with her lips unmoving, Shirou got the impression that he was interrogating a little girl as opposed to the grown woman standing before him. He still had to admit that this childish response was cuter than her usual haughty attitude. "...Luvia?"

Her face lit up with acknowledgment as if she had just realized that he was speaking with her. "Yes, Emiya?" Her voice was melodic.

"Do you mind if I come in?"

"No, of course not." She responded, stepping aside for him with an exalted wave of her hand for him to step in. She closed the door when he passed her and took a moment to admire the tuxedo that hung from his surprisingly lean frame. She did not take account of it before since the last time she had seen him he was dressed in the issued school uniform, which did little to make him stand out as was its purpose. "Is there something the matter?" She asked when he halted in his inspection of the entry hall to face her with a rather serious expression.

"Could you lead me to your kitchen, please?" Shirou requested, receiving his answer in the form of a nod before she beckoned him with a hand to follow her. She lead him through a large living room with polished, cherry wood floor boards that appeared to let off a soft red glow in the orange rays of the setting sun that penetrated through the windows in the west wall. Upon entering he saw a large painting hanging on the opposing wall, looming over a cream colored leather couch that depicted three elegantly dressed, young women standing side by side in front of a lake with decidedly mischievous smirks gracing their lips. The girl standing in the middle, the youngest of the three judging by appearance, struck an uncanny resemblance to Luviagelita. In the left corner of the room sat a grand piano with a cushioned stool sitting in front of it. Unless the noblewoman forgot to mention that she had been living with someone, Shirou assumed that she had a measure of skill with the instrument for her to keep such a space consuming monstrosity within the room. It must have been hell for the moving men to get it through the front door.

Leaving the living room through the other entryway, they entered the dining quarters of the house. A long table made of reflecting glass was situated at the center of the sensibly sized room with a vase set on top holding an arrangement of white flowers that blessed the room with a subtle perfume. A black chine deck was set against the wall opposite of the entryway from the living room with plates, tea sets and wine glasses neatly arranged in an elegant display that captured the eyes, and a medium sized chandelier hung from the ceiling above the table like an illuminated white jewel. Luvia lead Shirou through the other entryway to the left side of the room to finally reach the kitchen.

Shirou's excitement faltered at what he was met with. "I guess I was expecting too much." The young man mumbled dully upon entering the plain looking kitchen. Yes, it was technically larger than the one back at home with more modern appliances, but when compared to the other rooms he had just walked through it just seemed to lack the acceptable amount of elegance that he envisioned for it.

Luvia crossed her arms, catching his response and asked, "Are you disappointed with my choice of decor?" Her voice was calm if not a hint playful.

"Disa-n-no way!" He assured her with a forced grin, waving his hands back and forth. "I just expected it to be a little more-well...er..."

She furrowed her brows, teasing him, "A little more what?"

"It's just that the living room and the dining room were so nice so-"

"You expected it to reflect in their lavishness?"

"...I guess."

"Tell me, Shirou, you cook, don't you?" She smiled to him as if she had come across a wonderful discovery and it made Shirou feel a little uneasy being around her. Her reaction just didn't seem very noble for some reason.

"How did you figure that?"

"Oh, I don't know..." She sang playfully. "...It could have been that child-like look of excitement that you barely kept hidden as we got closer to the kitchen. Besides, a young man normally wants to be lead to a kitchen for two things: food or cooking. From your reaction to the appearance of my kitchen I'd have to assume that your reasons for wanting to be led here pertain to the latter"

Shirou grinned sheepishly at her logic. "I suppose you're right about that. I do cook. I guess you could even say that its a hobby of mine." He response must have pleased her immensely. She smiled at him as if he had become a valued friend, however, it faltered a bit as a seemingly negative thought ruined her initial expectancy of his abilities.

"I see..." She spoke, but for a moment she almost appeared reluctant to continue with her thoughts. "...But do you cook well?" Shirou's reaction to her uneasy inquiry was near instant, recoiling as if her doubt in his culinary skills had dealt him a critical blow to his spirit. For reasons only he understood an image of Rin in chef attire materialized in his head, laughing down on his pathetic, cowering form as she crossed her arms haughtily in victory.

He perked up immediately after fighting off the vision, "O-Of course, I cook well!" A raging flame ignited in his eyes as he strode over to the refrigerator, declaring, "I'll show you just how legendary my culinary skills are!" He grabbed a hold of one of the handles in preparation to wrench it open and Luvia panicked, her eyes widening in genuine horror.

"W-Wait-er-Emiya!" She reached out a hand to stop him before he could go through with it, but to no avail, she was a moment too late. Shirou opened the refrigerator door and stared blankly for a good while before closing it with a trembling hand and snatching at the handle for the freezer, which offered a similar, startling view upon opening it.

"Luvia..." Shirou regarded her, looking over his shoulder chillingly. "...This refrigerator is empty. Have you noticed that?"

"Yes." She nodded in acknowledgment to his astute observation, a hint of pink coloring her cheeks from the mortification of his discovery. "I'm well aware of that, Emiya."

"Did you eat anything last night?" He voice bordered on menacing. "I'm just curious."

"No. The food you treated me to yesterday morning was the last of what I consumed."

Shirou whipped around and stared at her incredulously. He simply could not believe what he was hearing. For a young woman that seemed to boast such an air superiority she sure was irresponsible. Was she attempting to starve herself until she collapsed, helpless and alone? "You mean to tell me that you didn't have breakfast or lunch yet?" His exclamation made her lean back grimacing.

"Naturally." She attempted to answer in her usual, smooth manner, but her new butler did not appear to be having it.

"Are you experiencing financial difficulties or something?" He really didn't want to risk it since he was already tip toeing on thin ice with most of them, but if that was the case he could convince the girls back at home to accept Luviagelita into the house until she was finished with her personal objective. The estate had so many extra rooms to spare that he often found himself wondering how Kiritsugi lived in such a large place all alone before he had come to adopt him. Then again the man hardly spent time in one place so it was probably all for looks.

Luviagelita blushed furiously at his implication, glaring at him agitatedly. "O-Of course not! Have you already forgotten who I am?"

"Even more of a reason for me to be angry at you!" He snapped back at her, forcing her to back off a bit. "What have you been doing all this time? It's really no wonder that you collapsed on me before, you've got no nutrients running through your body and all you've been doing is searching the town."

"I am too preoccupied hunting for my rival to worry about such trivial things as hunger." She turned up her nose stubbornly.

"Trivial?" Shirou scoffed, crossing his arms, "I'd really like to give you a lecture right now, but I'm more worried about how you're holding up at the moment and believe me, you're doing a bad job with that high and mighty act to hide the fact that you're human. We're going to the market to fill this refrigerator."

"E-Excuse me?" She blinked, unfamiliar to being spoken to in such a manner. "I already told you that I am not concerned with-"

"But I am, so lets get going." He cut her off, not willing to take another refusal from her and leaving the kitchen so that she had no other choice but to follow him if she intended to continue scolding him for his disobedience. "You're so irresponsible."

"Fine then." Luvia submitted with a humph, following him out of the house. "If it's that important to you!" She yelled after him childishly, and yet for some unexplainable reason she could not help but give into to the grin that kept tugging at the sides of her scowl. There was something about arguing with this young man that invigorated her.

* * *

Luvia's head turned left and right as she walked the streets of the central shopping center with her butler. Unlike the other areas of the rural town this place was much livelier, aloud with the voices of gossiping housewives and the laughter of mischievous children skipping about. Highschool students whizzed past them with groceries filling their shopping baskets and couples walked shoulder to shoulder with plastic bags gripped carefully in their intertwined hands.

"This is my first time coming through here." The young woman informed Shirou with a bit of fascination, taking in the unfamiliar sights like an untouched treasure trove. "The way people gather here...I should have come across this place much sooner. My search will go much smoother now that I know where to find it."

"Yeah, but right now we're here to shop so don't get any weird ideas." The young Emiya went ahead of her before she could suggest that they do anything else. _I shouldn't run into Sakura here unless she came to visit Rider at her part-time job in the antique shop._

"Don't forget your place in this relationship, Shirou. You should be assisting me in reaching my goals, not the other way around."

"I am assisting." He countered, "You're just being stubborn."

Luvia grinned to his response. "I think I have misjudged your character. You certainly aren't the passive individual I initially took you for."

"Does that put a dent in your plans?"

"Oh my, no." She purred. "A little conflict every now and then is good amusement for the mind, and it certainly makes for a productive relationship."

"Meaning?" Shirou asked, holding the door for Luvia to enter the store.

"I'm simply adoring you a little more every time you voice your personal feelings. You may actually make my days here entertaining after all."

Shirou blinked as she walked past him, entering the store and knit his brow. _This girl...why does she remind me so much of her? _He smiled to himself, "Nah. There's only room for one Tohsaka on this planet."

"Huh?" Shirou turned his head to regard Luvia when she made a noise. She stared at him with her eyebrows raised as if something he said alerted her. "What was that?" She leaned towards him curiously.

"Nothing really." He told her casually. "Just a private though. Anyway, is there anything in particular that you want for dinner?" _It is your money we're spending, after all..._

Apparently she was more cooperative regarding the idea than she initially let on because her answer came quicker than he expected, "A soup would be nice." She stepped closer to him, taking his arm to prompt him further into the store with her. The name that perked her ears a moment ago seemed to have slipped from her mind as she went on, "Are you familiar with any western soups by any chance?"

_Western dishes? _Shirou furrowed his brows as he thought back on the dishes he was familiar with. Of the few dishes that Rin bothered teaching him to cook (_so that he would eventually start cooking foods that she favored) _soup had never been included. "No, not exactly to be honest with you." He answered her, expecting to be met with disappointment, but her reaction was far from it.

"That doesn't matter." She said, sounding somewhat pleased with herself, though Shirou wasn't exactly sure why that would have been the case. "Dinner won't be boring this way so I'm looking forward to what you'll cook." The gleam in her eyes as she said it made the young Emiya chuckle to himself, piquing her curiosity again.

She smiled, "Did something I say amuse you?" Her inquiry got an apologetic grin out of Shirou.

"I didn't mean to be rude." He assured her. "You just reminded me of someone I know. She treats dinner like an adventure to the senses, always looking forward to every evening meal that I cook." Following his reply it had become Luvia's turn to laugh.

"Um, what?" He asked, curious to the cause of her laughter.

She pressed a hand to her mouth to stifle her giggles before she answered him with a simple, "You." Though with the way she said it, it meant volumes to the young man that she was referring to. There was something affectionate about her tone, a complete change from her attitude from before.

Shirou raised his eyebrow, intrigued. "What do you mean?"

"You're interesting, Shirou. I can now understand why I was instantly drawn to you." She smiled to him kindly, interrupting the flow of his thoughts with a cork in a manner of speaking. "You're more than I expected. By any chance might you have siblings?"

"Why do you ask?"

"There are many aspects about your personality that point to it, I suppose. Your immediate confidence around me was one point that brought up that suspicion. Most boys are intimidated by my womanly presence and yet you aren't hesitant in the slightest to drag me around as though you've known me longer than three days. I was under the impression that you had one or two sisters, or in the most extreme case, a _girlfriend_."

_Girlfriend, huh? _Rin came to mind, but Shirou knew that she would never consider labeling the two of them together as a couple. What they shared together was too complex to label as something so simplistic despite the outward appearances of their relationship. That, and the magus had come to see him more as her personal heroic spirit than a fellow high school student these days. _I blame you Archer. It still chills me to know that one day we'll be the same person...sort of._

"Shirou?" Luvia's voice pulled him away from his thoughts. "Is something the matter?"

He flinched, "Oh, um, girlfriend?" His mind seemed to be stuck on that subject for some reason. "I don't have...er, I suppose you could say that I'm single."

* * *

...

...

"Waah!" Taiga flinched back from her bowl of rice when the chopsticks gripped in Saber's hand snapped loudly, flying across the dining room in separate directions like broken twigs.

...

...

"Auuugh!" One of the female archers on the field cried out, dropping to the ground when the aim of Sakura's bow and arrow suddenly veered to the side without warning.

...

...

"Gwuuh!" The elderly antique shop woman cried out in shock when Rider's grip on the old vase she was holding became so strong that it crumbled to dust.

...

...

"Naaugh!" Illya cried out in horror when Rin unexpectedly sneezed her card castle to shambles.

...

...

"Ohmygauu-" Minori screamed as Mitsuzuri swung the Wii remote into the flat screen by mistake.

...

...

* * *

Luviagelita giggled at Shirou's awkward response, "No. I suppose you really wouldn't have a girlfriend, otherwise she would simply be furious knowing that you're spending your time helping me instead of keeping her company."

Shirou was still recovering from the chills that had suddenly come upon him without warning after he answered her question. He wasn't sure why, but something was telling him that he should have answered that differently. "Y-Yeah." He laughed nervously, crushing the urge to look over his shoulder. "You're right about that..." He blinked when his reply elicited an unexpected response from the sandy blonde. She gripped his arm and brought him closer to her side.

"Then would it be selfish of me to keep you all to myself?" It was unclear to him if she was serious, or if she was simply taking this opportunity to tease him.

"Very." Shirou's surprise response caught her off guard, but she did well to mask it. Instead she took that moment to frown in disappointment at how calmly he replied. "I may not have any siblings, but I do have a few friends living with me...um, all girls, in fact." His cheeks began to burn as the expression on Luvia's face gradually shifted to interest. "We're all very close so they would take notice if someone were ever to—how can I say this—monopolize my time."

"This information certainly sets things into perspective." The noble girl remarked, a smirk returning to her lovely face once again. "You're a ladies man." She feigned distress at her self proclaimed discovery. "You've been leading me on this entire time, haven't you?"

Shirou suddenly felt uncomfortable, "Y-You're joking..."

Luvia dropped the act quickly, "Of course I am." She unhanded his arm to step away from him and place her hand on her hips. "What I've drawn from our little banter is that you're an honest young man, and I certainly respect that, however, no man is without his naughty side."

"Eh?"

"Let's get what it is we've come for, hmm?" She grinned mischievously. "It's almost late and I would appreciate it if you stayed along at the house and had dinner with me. Don't worry, Shirou, I'll send you back on your way home before you get into trouble with your _friends_."

* * *

_**{FATE---STAY---NIGHT}**_

* * *

_**[Returning late that night ]**_

* * *

Shirou approached the front entrance of the Emiya estate with an apprehensive walk, appropriately dressed in his usual casual clothes to avoid suspicion from his lovely house mates. A little persuasion allowed him to convince Luvia that keeping his tuxedo at her house would have been best. It would keep him clear of any unwanted questioning if Rin or Saber happened to find it in his room, which, for whatever reason, had become less private and more public over the passing months that they had been living in the house. Not to say that Sakura or Illya were exempt from any implications that were made by that last sentence, but at least they went out of their way to make it seem as though they were.

"She dismissed me late on purpose, didn't she?" He muttered to no on in particular, passing through the front gate, into the court yard.

He froze...

"Shirou." A feminine figure standing at the front door addressed him in a proud voice, saying his name in a manner fit for a knight preparing to cross swords with him. It should have been of no surprise that the figure was Saber, standing there with her arms crossed over her chest, blue skirt swaying with the evening wind. "You've finally arrived."

He waved at her timidly, "Hey, Saber..." Somewhere in the back of his mind he was thankful that she did not have her armor equipped.

"Did you forget that it was your day to cook?" She asked him in a deathly cold voice. Shirou cast his relief away, half expecting her to materialize into her armor right there and Excalibur him into orbit.

"Oh..." He massaged the back of his neck nervously, completing the rest of the sentence in his head. _...Shit._

_..._

_..._

From the lions den and into the snake pit, Shirou mentally noted to himself, resting his head in the lap of the lovely Rin Tohsaka, though he would later correct himself, the snake pit was a thought more attuned to the lascivious Rider as opposed to the magus that was now tending to the smarting bruises all over his aching body. As it was mentioned somewhere down the line of this tale, Saber had a very telling way of dealing with her anger, and he'd just been on the receiving end of it; that is, sword training. After being hurried back into the house by the golden haired beauty, she chided him for returning late on his assigned cooking day and took that moment to remind him that he was falling behind in their training. What followed when he entered that dojo was exactly what he had expected from the miffed heroic spirit, a sound beating under the guise of honest training. Sure, she said that she was only pushing him harder because she was confident in his ability to handle it, but the condition in which he dragged himself from her lesson was far more fit for a man ready for the grave instead of a steadily progressing pupil.

All in all, Rin was taking all of this rather well for a mentor he stood up for the second time, especially odd considering her suspicions that he and Mitsuzuri were secretly developing an intimate friendship behind her back, which should have been kindled further by his late arrival tonight. This must have been the third day in a row now that Shirou thought about it. How was he going to keep on making excuses for his clandestine services to the noble and beautiful Luvia? It was only a matter of time before Rin or Saber; perhaps even Illya, decided to get far more aggressive about their nagging suspicions and began to keep tabs of his movements after classes let out in the afternoon. The idea of Sella and Leysritt tailing him in disguise from afar _was_ amusing for him to think about, but he wouldn't have put it past the conniving Illya to give them such a ridiculous task. Sella would have taken the task gladly, he was sure. That maid harbored ill feelings toward him; her reasons being, that he was unsure of, but he knew that nothing would please Sella more than to catch him doing something that she could torment him with on their every meeting.

"Yeesh!" Shirou hissed at the stinging sensation in his shoulder when Rin moved the ice bag in her hand against it. She decided not to employ her healing magic in treating his injuries this time, which would have surely saved her the time and him the discomfort, but he wasn't about to inquire on her reasons for deciding against it. Better for him to allow her to vent whatever feelings she was personally dealing with, or they might jump out and hurt him. Still- "Could you be a little rougher on me?" The young man asked his nurse, doing very little to conceal his sarcasm. "I don't think I'm crying just yet."

"Quit whining, Emiya-kun." Rin told him with a strangely content smirk. "You're a man, aren't you? Try impressing me by keeping that chin up."

"Who wants to impress you?" Shirou shot at her irritably before wincing again when she shifted the bag of ice against his shoulder. "Ow, ow, ow!"

"I'm sorry, couldn't hear a thing you just said. You must have been grumbling."

"Man, I hadn't expected Saber to be so rough on me."

Rin's hand stopped putting pressure on his shoulder, relieving him. "You should have seen the look on her face when I told her that we were going to have to go with takeout tonight." The magus frowned slightly as she recalled the knight's expression upon hearing that Shirou would not be greeting her at the table with another one of his handmade feasts, but it lightened up into a grin as she twisted the knife. "Absolutely devastated, that poor girl. It made me really jealous, you know? I could go missing for a few days on one of my business trips and Saber won't even make a fuss on my return, but you just have to come home late and she'll bounce off the walls until she sees you again."

"You always know how to make me feel guilty, don't you?" Shirou grumbled, averting his eyes from her face.

"It's not that hard, Emiya-kun." Rin replied with a hint of warmth. "You're a very considerate guy, even if that doesn't always work for everyone."

"It seems like I keep hearing that line." Shirou muttered to no one in particular, getting the young woman's ears to perk up.

"From who?" She inquired, eye narrowing ever so slightly.

"Er, just me thinking out loud." He forced a chuckle. "Don't mind me." His quick response brought a frown to Rin's lovely countenance, one that seemed quite genuine and heartfelt.

"Hey, Shirou." She used his first name, snapping his undivided attention to her. "You're usually a really open person, you know? Why are you suddenly being such a closed book to everyone?"

Shirou couldn't help the nervous grin that came upon his face as he could only respond with a- "H-huh? What do you mean?"

"What're you hiding, huh?"

"I've got nothing to hide." He assured her quickly.

"Then why have you been so late coming home the past few days?"

"I told you, Neko-san has been keeping me a little longer these days."

"What for?"

"Just stuff...you know?" Shirou answered her awkwardly, following quickly. "It's really nothing to get worried about! It's not like I'm getting into any trouble or anything."

Rin studied his face silently, her left eyebrow rising ever so slowly. "...Well, it's not like I'm suspecting you of any foul play."

"Foul play?"

"D-don't let it bother you." Rin stammered quickly. "...So...you and Ayako..."

"Yeah? What about her?" Shirou questioned casually, his mind doing nothing to connect what happened on the roof earlier today to Rin's sudden mention of the archery captain.

"You two have a bit of a history together, don't you?" She asked carefully, doing her best not to seem too interested in their past. "Weren't you both in the archery club together at one point?"

"Yeah." He answered, sitting up from the comfort of her lap to face her side by side. He worked out a kink in his right arm with a crack and relaxed it at his side, flexing the muscles in his forearm. "Mitsuzuri, Shinji and me."

"I didn't ask about Shinji, silly." Rin told him with a dark expression, perhaps from thinking about said young man. "I'm talking about you and Ayako. Why does she want you to come back to the archery club so bad? There's been rumors since the day I enrolled that you two were once a couple, and now she wants you back."

"That would be a lie." Shirou told her flatly with a frown. "Mitsuzuri was really competitive back when I was in the club. I think she still is."

"So you think that maybe she feels like you two have a score to settle?"

"That might be it."

"You guys seem kind of close though." The lovely magus argued. "She's always all over you whenever you meet, and...you two were holding hands when you came up to the roof today."

"U-Oh, um, that." For some reason Shirou turned slightly red when she mentioned that last part, and it made Rin's lips curl into a slight scowl. "Well, you know, Mitsuzuri is just really friendly in general. That sort of thing means nothing to her, seriously!"

"Funny," Rin said with a hint of sarcasm, "Ayako doesn't do that with Ryudo, or any of the other boys she knows. Hell, she was never that close to Shinji and he remained with her in the club for a while after you supposedly left."

"That's because Shinji was a playboy, you know that." Shirou countered her argument. "There was no way she was going to be friendly with him. He might have taken it the wrong way."

"I don't know, Shirou." Rin told the tracer, resting her chin in her hand as she leaned over to him. "No matter how you look at it, she's awfully attached to you."

"I don't know why you worry so much." Shirou brushed her words off. "I mean...I have you, right?"

Rin's face flushed instantaneously. "...What was that?"

"C'mon, Tohsaka." Shirou leaned over to her, having her lean back. "What's really going on between us? We're _a couple, _aren't we_?" _He leaned forward until Rin was forced to prop herself up on her elbows. Her eyes glanced at her bed quickly before returning to her friend, and her lips quivered nervously as she attempted to form words.

"What are you trying to get me to say?" She exclaimed, her cheeks burning hotly. She could feel the heat building in her neck as she stared back into his eyes, and she brought her legs up to her chest, moving her hands over her lingerie so they wouldn't be exposed in her position. "You're so blunt sometimes."

"Why are you getting so embarrassed?" He asked her gently. "It's not like we're doing anything we haven't done before. I've held you before." He brought his lips to her neck slowly and kissed her hot skin, eliciting a shrill giggle that gradually grew quieter as he brought his lips to her again and again. In time he was hovering over her with his hands at her sides as she squirmed beneath almost sensually as soft giggles left her pink lips. She brought her arms to rest at the sides of her head as he trailed lower with each kiss and brought a hand to the back of his head, intertwining her fingers with his hair. Shirou took that as a sign of approval and slowly brought a hand to her thigh, lifting it steadily to hook his thumb beneath her red shirt to lift it over her stomach, but-

"Wait, wait!" She breathed out quickly.

"W-what?" Shirou lifted his head, quirking a brow in surprise. "Something wrong?"

"Lock the door before we do anything else!" She told him in a low voice. "I don't want Sakura coming in on us!"

_Strange how you made no mention of Saber in your concerns... _The young Emiya thought suspiciously, but he reluctantly backed off of her and got to his feet to walk to the door and do as she asked him. He paused for a moment, leaving his hand on the knob and unlocked it again, opening the door to look at both ends of the hall just in case. Sakura was at the right end, frozen in place, staring at him like she'd been caught doing something she shouldn't have.

"Sempai?" She squeaked, an awkward smile forming on her lovely lips. "Are you two holding lessons tonight?"

Shirou nodded, hoping that the sweat forming on his face wasn't noticeable to her from the distance shared between them. "Y-Yeah, we are." He answered her, adding quickly, "Tohsaka wants privacy tonight though, so tell Saber and Rider if you run into them."

"...O-ok!" Sakura nodded hard, her hair bouncing with each nod. "I'll tell them."

"Thanks!" He offered her a smile that got her blushing before he closed the door, but he didn't face away from it after turning the lock. At least not without a low mutter of, "You better not be eavesdropping, Rider." When he was satisfied with the silence that followed, feeling that the room was secure, he turned around to face Rin who had somehow moved from the floor to the bed, while his back had been turned, without a sound. Her skirt had been removed by her already, lying on the floor where he'd been sitting just a moment ago, but her shirt and black knee socks remained. Shirou tried not to sigh audibly as she stared at him from the bed, legs pressed together with a serious expression on her face.

_She needs to lighten up._ He thought to himself with a barely noticeable smile as he made his way to the bed to sit beside her. "Why are you so tense?"

Rin glared at him. "Am not." She told him, keeping her voice from rising when she did. She relaxed when Shirou leaned in and pecked her on the corner of her mouth before staring into her eyes. When she nodded he moved to her mouth, kissing her gently, prompting her to part her lips and slither her tongue out into his mouth. Her initiative momentarily took him by surprise, but he rewarded her boldness, moving his tongue against her's and suckling on it, hearing her giggle into his mouth. He eased her onto her back as they proceeded to deepen the kiss, closing the gaps between their mouths, and hooked his thumb under her shirt again, hoping to continue what he started earlier before she interrupted him, but-

Rin drew back, blushing like mad. "Um..." She looked to him unsurely.

"What's wrong?" Shirou cocked his head to the side, trying not to seem annoyed. "Are you uncomfortable?"

She glanced down at her chest, "...It's nothing like that."

"Then just relax." He slowly lifted her shirt over her belly button and moved his mouth to her neck, marking her hot skin with kisses until he could cup her right breast in his hand. He felt a mild shudder from her at the contact and paused for a moment, looking to her eyes before moving away from her neck and focusing on the pink crown standing slightly hard on her left breast. He kissed it tenderly before flicking at it with his tongue, up and down, drawing a tight circle around it, and sucking on it lightly, all the while kneading her breast with slow motions. He felt Rin shudder again, a little more strongly, and alternated to her right breast, taking the hard nub in his mouth while he moved his hand over her right, taking it between two fingers and teasing it. Halfway through his ministrations he lowered his hand away from her left mound of flesh until he felt the waistband of her panties. He felt the rhythm of her chest quicken as he pulled it down, stopping when he had access to the glistening, pinks folds that were hidden beneath it. He could feel the heat coming off of her as his middle finger slid between her nether lips, stimulating the moist tunnel inside before slipping upwards to fondle her clit. Rin tried to hold back the moan that forced its way out of her throat, failing miserably, and bringing a smirk to Shirou's face.

"Let me just..." Shirou trailed off, moving off of her to position himself between her legs. "Move down here."

Rin nodded, shifting herself along the bed to get comfortable. When she was ready, Shirou brought his hands to her thighs and lifted them so he could draw his lips to the folds of her sex. He saw her twitching, fluids dripping faster than before, and drove his tongue inside, burying his face between her legs. Rin tensed at the gentle contact of his tongue against her pulsing flesh as he moved upwards so slowly that she could feel tears building in her eyes. He stimulated her slit with a few darts of his tongue, dropped further toward her anal dip, drawing a near wail of ecstasy from her lips, and worked his way back up. He came close to her hard nub on the fourth way through and broke contact before his tongue could touch it, driving her nearly mad.

"Quit teasing me!" She growled out in a near purr.

"Sorry, sorry." Shirou apologized, amused by her reaction, and proceeded to lick her thoroughly, holding her carefully as her hips squirmed in a gyrating motion, trying to bury his face further until finally her legs clamped down on him, imprisoning his head with her muscles while his mouth was still planted over her sopping sex. Her taste filled his mouth as he continued to lick her, feeling her grind against his face, and he finished her off, pressing his tongue against her clit hard. She tightened her hold around his head, slapping both of her hands over her mouth and cried out long and unrestrained. Her legs went lax immediately afterward, releasing him, and Shirou carefully rested her soft butt on his knees.

"Hwooh...haah...oh god..." Rin panted out, looking for all the world like she would collapse right there and bid farewell to the waking world.

"It's not over yet." Shirou told her mischievously, and she managed a smile in return, but what followed next surprised him. She placed her hand against his navel and pushed lightly.

"Hold on, cowboy." She told him, pacing her breaths. "I'll be taking over now."

"Are you sure?"

"Y-Yes, I'm sure!" She snapped. "Just lay back, alright?" She ordered him, sliding back off of his knees to get into a kneeling position. Shirou nodded obediently and sat up before straightening himself out on her bed in a laid back position. Rin leaned over and tugged at his belt, loosening it and slipping it off his waist to drop it on the floor. She then undid the button on his jeans, and pulled down the zipper, tugging down on his pants until she was able to slip it off his legs. Shirou followed her example and reached down to pull his shirt off as she removed his underwear.

"All of that training does you some good after all." Rin complimented him with a libidinous gaze as she straddled him. She sat down just above his cock and leaned over to stroke her hand against his toned body, seemingly ignoring the way his member stood upright as if trying to bury itself between the luscious cheeks of her behind. "I guess a beating isn't the only thing you get out of your sessions with Saber, after all."

"You just noticed?" Shirou retorted, a bead of sweat hanging at the side of his forehead as her hand reached behind to grab him. She smirked at him like a demoness from his wildest fantasies as she stroked up and down slowly.

"And this guy must get good exercise too, huh?" She moaned questioningly, gradually increasing the intensity of her strokes. "When was the last time you replenished Saber's mana reserve?"

Shirou burned beet red at her strange inquiry, "W-Why the hell are you asking that now?"

"Oh...no reason." Rin said melodically, massaging the base of his cock. "I just keep remembering the first time you and Saber were forced to have sex. You just kept thrusting your hips like a confused boy until you couldn't move any longer."

"Y-Yeah?" Shirou stammered, embarrassment written all over his face. "W-Whatever!"

"Have you two been trying anything new since then?" She moved her hand further down to play with his balls. "I mean, I'm sure even Saber would get bored if you guys just kept doing the same thing." She brought her hand back to the base and stroked all the way up to the tip, holding it carefully as she lifted hips. "Ever thought about a threesome?"

"Hu..." Shirou's lower body tensed when she lowered herself onto him. "H-huh?" His voice went up an octave as he felt her tighten around him. She flashed him a smirk and began to move on top of him, grinding her hips back and forth in a smooth fluid motion that gave him the impression that she was belly dancing. Each motion sent tingles through his shaft as the soft walls of her vagina twisted and gripped him, drawing him in every time she pulled her hips back. Rin adored the look on Shirou's face as she continued to work him, and she arched her back, letting her hands rest on the bed mattress so she could start moving her hips up and down. The shift in gears caught Shirou by surprise and he almost released himself, but he held back; kept his eyes focused on her small breast as they bounced, and not on the wild expression on her face. He knew that if he did he probably wouldn't be able to keep control much longer.

"What's...the...matter?" Rin teased him in short breaths, coming down on him harder with each rise. "Are...you...almost...there?"

Shirou sat up and wrapped his arms around her back, bringing her to him so he could suck on her breasts and she sighed out contently, placing a hand at the back of his head to press his mouth against her harder. She felt him slide his right hand down the arch of her back, to rest on her butt and she bit her lip as the shivers of another orgasm shook her body. She felt her legs wobble as Shirou laid back on the bed, bringing her body forward as he did so she could lay against his chest. His other hand came to rest on her other butt cheek, fingers sinking into her flesh, and he began to thrust his hips upward, drawing a startled gasp from her as her eyes widened. There was a slap, slap, slap of their bodies as he drove his cock into her with each thrust, bouncing her butt up and down with each draw back and it only got more intense as she dug her nails into his shoulders. They were both breathing so hard that the magus could swear there was a mist building between them, and their bodies were so hot and moist that she thought they would melt and become one. Both of their minds were scrambling about to regain focus until that final thrust that sent an electric current through the both of them.

"GAH!" Shirou's instincts kicked in and he pulled away from her completely before it was too late, shooting out his seed upward in short spurts.

Rin looked at him with a lazy smile and leaned over to kiss him on the forehead. "Well...that was nice."

Shirou chuckled, a smile breaking out on his face. "You weren't...so bad yourself..." His eyes drifted off focus before closing slowly. "...Rin."

The lovely young woman licked her chops and bared her teeth as he laid there oblivious. "And now..." She trailed off, her words getting Shirou to open his eyes halfway.

"And now...what?" He asked, and-

**_CHOMP!_**

"Ouch!"

...

...

"What the hell was that for?" Shirou groaned, rubbing his shoulder as he walked down the hall from Rin's room, fully dressed, of course. He pulled his shirt down his shoulder to look at the pronounced bite mark that Rin left him with and touched it, drawing back quickly when it stung like hell. "That's going to leave a mark in the morning." _And I better take a shower. I smell like...Rin...I think. _For some reason a smile crept across his face, but he slapped himself aware. "Well, after that, there's no denying it. Rin loves me...right?" Sadly he didn't seem too confident about that, but he didn't let any of the minor details get him down. He stopped in front of his room and slid the door open, walking in with a long stretch of his arms, yawning. He pulled his shirt over his head, folding it after turning it inside out, and dropped it to the ground before walking over to his closet to retrieve a fresh towel for his bath.

"I hope Saber cooled down already." He said to no one in particular, grabbing a towel from the top of the stack. "...I'll prepare her a hearty breakfast tomorrow to make up for it." He nodded to himself, making up his mind. "Yeah, I'm sure she'll enjoy that."

"Perhaps not as much as Rin enjoyed eating you." An all to familiar voice came from behind Shirou, making all of the hairs on his body rise up in fright.

Shirou turned at the waist to see Rider sliding his door shut behind her. "R-Rider!" He cried out in a low voice so no one else would hear him. "Stop sneaking up on me in my room!"

"Evening, good samaritan." She greeted him coyly, her glasses glinting in the light. "A student by day, a butler in the afternoon, and a lover by night." One of the dark servant's rare smiles snaked across her lovely lips. "I'd read that story, maybe."

"What words of wisdom do you have to offer me tonight?"

"I have no idea what you're alluding to, Shirou." The bespectacled woman told him with a shrug of her shoulders. "I just wanted to see how you were holding up. You and Luvia are getting awfully friendly with each other, aren't you?"

"What do you mean?" The redhead inquired, genuinely curious as to what she meant. "I'm just helping her out as her butler."

"So you've wholeheartedly accepted the position." Rider observed, causing the young man to flinch at the slip of tongue.

"W-Well, it's not like I'm going to be making it a permanent career position."

"Is that what you think?" Her question perked him up with its mysterious tone, almost as if she was implying the opposite. "Shirou, contrary to what others believe, I don't think you're as naive as you portray yourself around the others."

And despite that, Shirou could only respond with, "And what does that mean?"

"Doesn't it strike you as odd that she wouldn't let go of you?" The lavender haired servant asked, staring at him in disbelief. "She's wealthy, she's beautiful, she has connections with more people than you could possibly imagine, and yet she decides that she wants Shirou Emiya, an ordinary student with no experience in the service field. Suspicious, is it not?"

"...You think she's been targeting me all along?"

"Maybe." Rider answered him with a slow nod that practically said '_Duh_'. "Can you guess why?"

"...Hmm..."

"Yes?" Rider leaned forward in anticipation.

"Hmm..."

"Please tell me those noises mean you're thinking."

"...I've got nothin'." Shirou answered her honestly, his expression blank.

Rider caught her glasses before they slipped off the bridge of her nose, her left eyebrow twitching in annoyance. "Well, people like you only learn from experience, I guess." The dark servant said with a shrug of her shoulders before smirking subtly. "I'll enjoy watching you get out of this one. After all, what's a good story without a stunning climax, right?"

"You mean we've gotten past rising action already?"

"Way past." Rider chuckled ominously. "By the way," Her eyes fell upon the bite mark that Rin gave him as a parting gift, "I couldn't help, but notice that Rin...marked you."

Shirou slapped his hand upon the incriminating mark, regretting it when it stung sharply. "Th-That bad, huh? I'll have to bandage that later." He said, laughing nervously, but it died in his throat when he noticed the predatory gaze that Rider was giving him. He'd seen that look before and it never meant well.

"It's like an open declaration of a challenge." She spoke in a creepy voice, drawing near him. "I must answer it with a reply."

"R-Rider?" Shirou backed away, feeling very vulnerable all of a sudden. "W-Wah!" He nearly jumped from the floor when she dropped her hands on his shoulders, firmly holding him in place so he wouldn't escape from her clutches.

"It's not wise to make a woman jealous, you know."

_**CHOMP...SLLLLuuuRP!**_

...

...

Shirou stepped into the bathroom looking very much like a shell of his former self. "Oh...oh god." He placed his hand upon his neck, feeling for the punctures of Rider's fangs. "I almost thought she was going to suck me dry."

"Shirou?" The call of his name made him go rigid with fright.

"H-huh?" He slowly looked to the large tub to find Saber lounging inside with a rubber duck floating along the surface of the water. "Saber? Oh, sorry." He was far too tired to be any more surprised by the unexpected occupant. Admittedly, he should have paid attention to the steam in the air when he entered. Sometimes he wondered why he always managed to get himself into this awkward situation. You'd swear he was the main star of an eroge. "I'll come back when you've finished up. I'm in no rush."

The sound of sudden movement in water. "W-Wait, Shirou." Saber reached out to him before he could turn away. "Why don't you join me?"

Shirou blinked. "I don't want to be a bother."

"But I'd really appreciate your company, Shirou." Saber insisted, worry present in her eyes. "I don't...want us to end our evening the way we did in the dojo. I'd hate for us to part ways for the night on that note."

"Um..." Shirou hesitated, wondering if it was really wise to take a dip in the tub with the blonde knight, but the expression on her face was so...irresistible. He just couldn't say no to Saber, not when she put on such a pleading look on her lovely face. Besides, she was his best friend, and an irreplaceable one at that. If she wanted to smooth the wrinkles between them, then he would be a total ass to turn her down, not to mention he felt no resentment toward her to begin with. _I'm such a damn softy. _The young man cursed himself as he undid the towel around his waist. "Why not?" He told her warmly, stepping over to the tub to join her. When he had completely settled down in the warm bath Saber drew near him, leaning against him with her head on his shoulder.

"I...apologize for how I behaved earlier." She apologized to him in her usual dignified voice. "My rough treatment of you during our training session was uncalled for. It shames me that I reacted so terribly to your late arrival."

"It's fine, Saber." He told her with a light chuckle. "It was my fault anyway. I know how much you love my cooking." The water temperature must have risen after he said that, and a look at Saber informed him as to why. The girl was blushing up to her ears in embarrassment, shrinking against him as if she intended to vanish.

"This is...true." Saber responded honestly. "I hold your cooking in the highest regard, so...to be deprived of it was like undue punishment."

"I'm sorry." He placed his hand on her head as she cuddled against him. "I'll cook you a big breakfast tomorrow to make up for dinner. Anything you want!"

"Anything?" Saber's eyes lit up like a desert traveller that had been offered a jug of water.

"Anything." Shirou nodded with a knowing grin. "You just name it and I'll cook it."

"You've put me in a difficult position, Shirou." She replied, a very serious expression washing over her face. "I will have to think hard over this tonight."

"Just sleep on it. I'm sure you'll figure out what you want."

"Perhaps you are right..." The knight nodded, however, she stopped in mid nod for some reason, eyes directed at something on his neck. "...You've been bitten?" She was placed on alert mode, grabbing him by the shoulder and pulling him over so she could inspect the bite wound closely. The next word that left her mouth sounded very much like a curse. "Rider..." She hissed, eyes narrowing to near slits.

"Settle down, Saber!" Shirou wrapped his arms around her stomach before she could attempt to get out and deliver the dark servant's punishment. "It's nothing to freak out about."

Saber glared at him. "You're too nice to her."

"Look, she was just really hungry, you know?" Shirou lied with an admittedly weak excuse, but that's all he had at the moment and he was going to use it dammit. "It was nothing major."

"And what of that other bite?" Saber inquired suspiciously. "That doesn't appear to be Rider's doing."

"Oh, um, that..." He'd forgotten about that one. "...Rin did that."

"Rin?" Her eyes widened with surprise. "Why would she do that?"

"Thats a good question." Shirou mused, letting go of her. "I'm not sure." Then just as if a lightbulb went click over her head, Saber's eyes widened slightly, her chest rising with a sharp intake of air.

"It's a mark of claim!" She exclaimed confidently, looking at him with an expression that cried out '_I hit it on the head, didn't I_'. "It is, isn't it?" She asked, staring him in the eyes with a look of pride.

"You think so?" Shirou asked, not sure what to think anymore. "Now that you mention it, it kind of seems that way."

"Then I will answer her!" Saber declared with fierce determination, and with that she submerged herself in the water.

Shirou blinked when she didn't come back up for a while. "What is she going to-"

**_CHOMP!_**

"OH MY GOD, SABER! WHY WOULD YOU EVEN?"

* * *

**_[ And so, we move on to the next day at Luviagelita's Home..._**** ]**

"Welcome back, Emiya!" Luviagelita greeted the young Emiya after opening the door to him, looking as haughty and confident as she ever did. Shirou wanted to appreciate the sight of her radiance, but his body ached for reasons that didn't need stating, and in particular areas that were better left to the imagination. "What seems to be the matter, Emiya?" The noble inquired in a gentle voice. "Did you have a restless night? The temperature is rising rather high..." She noted as an afterthought, looking up to the sun in the sky as though it would report the weather forecast to her.

"Restless?" Shirou echoed her, doing his best not to cringe at the events of last night. "Maybe just a little, but first thing's first."

Luvia regarded him curiously, "And that would be?"

"Have you eaten anything yet?" He asked a question that was starting to become a regular exchange between them, and the noble Luvia fought the urge to giggle at that moment. She found that there was something of a friendship developing between them in such short time, which was something she would not be adverse to in the slightest.

"...No." She answered him after a long silence, perhaps because she was unable to think up a convincing lie.

"I like your honesty." Shirou offered her a friendly smile that made the dejected frown on her face twitch upwards. "I'll prepare something for you then. I am your butler after all." That last part was said with a hint of pride, and Luvia caught it with delight.

"Your tuxedo is in the spare guest room upstairs, pressed and ready for the day." She informed him as she stepped aside to let him enter. "Feel free to change in there, Emiya."

"Thank you."

"No. I must thank you, Emiya." The noble girl told him, watching as he ascended the staircase. _Oh, Shirou, how I enjoy your company. _The smile on her face faded when Shirou stopped at the top of the staircase and looked down at her with a question of, "Which room is the guest room? Sorry, I should have asked before I went up." Embarrassment momentarily flashed upon his handsome face, his left hand scratching at the back of his head from habit.

"The first door to your immediate right." Luvia answered him after bringing a gloved hand to her mouth to stifle a giggle.

"Oh." His eyes widened briefly when he saw the door she was referring, and he grinned at her before he walked in. "Thanks again!" He told her with a poke of his head before closing the door behind him. The first thing he noted upon turning away from the door to investigate the room was the large western bed situated against the left wall, already dressed with a champagne colored bed set. A polished wooden night table was set closely to the left side of the bed, and a dresser of similar craftwork was set against the adjacent wall at the opposite side of the bed, complete with a mirror for the owner of the room to admire themselves with. At the opposite side of the room there was a large, stylish wardrobe with mirrors on each of its four doors. The two doors toward the middle appeared to open to one complete section while the doors to the ends opened to separate ones.

"Really nice." Shirou remarked to himself in a somewhat annoyed tone of voice. "She doesn't hold back even for this room." His eyelids drooped. "Barely any love for that kitchen though. I wonder why..." He pulled away from his thoughts, looking back to the wardrobe. "I'm going to take an educated guess and say that the tuxedo is in that monstrosity." With that hunch he approached the wardrobe and grabbed at the handles for the center doors to pull them open. What he was met with slightly shocked him. To answer the question as to what it was; a full suit closet of tuxedo jackets, vests, designer cross ties and bow ties, and polished dress shoes of his size.

"Ahem." Shirou closed both doors very slowly, and looked to the door at the left end.

He opened it; an entire sections of pressed slacks.

"...I see." He looked to the door at the right end.

He opened it; an entire section of designer dress shirts.

"Oooooh boy." Shirou said, suddenly feeling slightly uncomfortable standing in the guest room, because after his startling discovery it didn't seem very much like a guest room anymore. It felt like this was...his room.

_~"She's wealthy, she's beautiful, she has connections with more people than you could possibly imagine, and yet she decides that she wants Shirou Emiya, an ordinary student with no experience in the service field. Suspicious, is it not?"~ _Rider's words invaded his head as he turned away from the wardrobe, falling back to lean against it with a very blank expression. How was he expected to react to something like this, he wondered. Luviagelita told him this wasn't permanent, but he never really stopped to think about just how long it would take for her to finish her business around here, and when she was done, what happened next. She purchased a house around here, she moved in her furniture. The more he thought about it, it began to disturb him. How long had she been staying around here before she approached him at the school?

"Ah, what the hell am I doing listening to Rider anyway?" Shirou told himself, ignoring the voice of the dark servant. "This isn't some kind of movie or something. Whatever Luvia is doing, it's very unlikely that I have any remote significance in it." And yet the young Emiya couldn't get the image of Rider smiling at him with an _'I told you so' _kind of laugh out of his head. "...Dammit." He sighed out flatly.

...

...

"Mmmph!" Luvia's lips pressed together tightly as she let out a guttural notification of pleasure to Shirou's fine cooking. She swallowed on the small chunk of meat that she cut from the steak on her plate and wiped her mouth with a handkerchief. "Simply exquisite, Emiya!" She complimented him with genuine appreciation. "Your cooking comes close to surpassing the cuisine at some of the high ranking restaurants that I've dined at within the area!"

Shirou caught that and regarded her suspiciously. "I thought you said you weren't familiar with the area..."

Luvia caught herself when he said that. "I did, didn't I?" The sandy haired noble mused, keeping a composed smile. "Well, I meant that, of course. I just kind of ran into them while I explored the area, I guess. Anyway!" She exclaimed extending a hand out to him while her mind quickly devised a different subject of banter that would direct the roused young man away from his brewing suspicions, and to much safer ground. "Have you ever considered culinary school, Emiya? With your talent you should be seeking out ways to refine them, or you'll let them go to waste. I mean it, take interest now and I'm sure without a doubt that you'll be able to pursue a rewarding career path."

Shirou blushed at her unabashed praise. "You think so?"

"My inner entrepreneur speaks to me when I look at you, Shirou!" Luvia told him with excitement in her voice, emotion that he couldn't brush off as a mere act. "It tells me not to look away, it tells me the take this young man under my wing and nurture his potential." She saw Shirou trying to hide the blush creeping past his ears and cried out, "Don't look away, Emiya! Yes, look at me. I would take any risk with you, I would, because you're rare, you're precious, you're one of a kind. Don't think of yourself as common practice, fate clearly had plans when it brought us together."

"Okay, seriously, I'm flattered, but-"

"No, don't be flattered." The noble girl told him, gesturing to him with an open hand. "Accept it as a fact." She brought her hand in with a fist. "The world bends to you when you do." Seeing that she had completely steered his thoughts away from her slip earlier, she relaxed and went back to savoring her meal while Shirou simply stared to the side, still soaking her words in. "By the way, Emiya, what inspired you to experiment with different food choices to begin with? From the dishes you prepared last night I had assumed that you were mainly accustomed to Okinawa and Yoshoku cuisine."

"Oh..." Shirou blinked, surprised that she noticed that. "I wasn't really that flexible in my cooking at first. It really wasn't until one of the girls, back where I live, moved in that I started experimenting with other types of cuisine. She favored mostly western dishes so I basically caught on and followed whenever she cooked them. I guess you could say she inspired me." He laughed with a grin. "Yeah...inspired me."

"It sounds like you two are...close." Luvia observed, her voice a curious tone. "Or am I assuming too much?"

"Close?" Shirou repeated her, looking back at her for a while as he considered the use of the word. "...I guess you might say that. We get along pretty well, and I suppose you might say that we're friendly towards each other."

The young woman smiled, setting down her fork with a cheshire grin. "Ah, was that uncertainty, or am I just imagining things?"

"Sure sounds that way, huh?" He responded dejectedly. "Yeah, I could see how you might think that."

"Yes, yes." Luvia said to herself softly before speaking up. "Boys and girls tend to be ambiguous about these things, er, relationships that is."

Shirou shrugged his shoulder with a slight frown. "Sure seems that way."

"Don't hurt yourself thinking about it, Emiya." She consoled him, waving her fork back and forth. "Sometimes, you might find, the answer is looking you in the face." And she made a purposeful pause, holding eye contact with him for a long few seconds before slipping another chunk of meat into her mouth. "Mmph." She moaned in delight, casting a surreptitious glance at the young Emiya while his mind went to work for her. Her tongue passed over her lips when she did. "Scrumptious!"

...

...

Luviagelita walked through the city streets with her butler Shirou following closely like a personal bodyguard. Some of the people that passed them on the sidewalk allowed their eyes to linger far longer than the young Emiya was comfortable with. Who knew what they were thinking, looking at him follow this girl around in such eye catching attire _(Those threads were definitely expensive)_, especially some of the students that went to his school. Some of the guys that saw the two of them together raised eyebrows, their thoughts likely leaning more towards Luvia and her exoitic features than Shirou, thankfully, but the women, blossoming and ripe, alternated between smiling slyly at the hapless butler and shooting envious glares at the noblewoman that walked in front of him.

Shirou wanted to believe that they were really on a mission to locate Luvia's rival, as she labeled this individual, but his faith in her goals began to falter little by little every time she stopped to admire a landmark, or dragged him to a specialty shop to check out the wares being sold. At one point Luvia stopped in front of a poster advertising a pro wrestling event that was going to be live on television and she didn't budge for so long that Shirou suspected she might have been a closet, narcolepsy patient. There was definitely something about her and wrestling, though. He harbored a suspicion about it when she first pulled him into that ridiculously effective headlock on their second meeting before everything really kicked off between them, but evidence was gradually beginning to accumulate the longer he kept this girl company.

"Hey, Luvia?" Shirou addressed his mistress casually. Despite his subservient position in their business relationship, she didn't seem to mind that he addressed informally on the job.

"Yes, Emiya?" She responded to him, never halting in her walk. Were they heading somewhere, or were they just walking aimlessly?

"No disrespect Luvia, but what exactly are we...doing?"

"Scouting the area, of course." She answered him, confident in her answer.

"Alright." Shirou nodded unconvinced by her reply, but he decided to play along anyway. "So we only entered those shops because you didn't want to risk the chance of this person getting away?"

Luvia stopped and turned to face him, a grin on her face. "Ah, I sense some doubt in you, Emiya." She observed, placing her hands on her hips in the usual haughty manner that he had come to identify her with. "What appears to be gnawing at you?"

"Weeeell," Shirou began, averting his eyes uncomfortably, "it's not that the idea of serving as your butler bothers me personally."

"Yes?"

"And I really do enjoy your company, so think nothing on that account." He quickly threw in although her expression didn't appear to shift in the slightest as he spoke.

"And I enjoy yours." Luvia politely interjected.

"But I'd be lying if I said this responsibility did not exactly...clash with my daily, er, schedule."

"How so?"

Shirou squared eyes with her, stroking his chin as he thought of how to approach this. "Do you remember what I told you yesterday." He asked her, getting a questioning look in response. "The girls that live with me, I mean."

"Oh yes. I do, now that you mention it." She replied. "What's wrong? Did you get into trouble with them last night?" Her voice indicated that she knew just as much.

"You know _exactly_ what I mean." Shirou exclaimed, narrowing his eyes with annoyance. "They're starting to ask questions."

"Are they?" The noble girl smirked deviously. "And why haven't you answered them?"

"Well, I have, obviously, but not with the truth!"

"And why not? I took you for the honest type."

"Are you messing with me?" Shirou asked rhetorically. "Oh, yeah, sorry about getting back late guys. I just had to take care of a few things with my new employer. Oh, right, I'm a butler. Sorry I didn't run that down with you guys earlier."

Luvia giggled melodically, hand to her mouth again. "Sounds a lot like a scene out of a sitcom."

"Exactly." He concurred. "So I think it's about time I came clean with them."

"Oh..." Hesitation wrote itself in clear ink on the young woman's face. "And how do you intend to do that?"

"You're going to join me for dinner tonight." He told her, crossing his arms before he added, "At my house."

"Ahahahaha." Luvia maintained a calm and confident facade as she digested those words. This came in a little sooner than she expected. "Very well. I mean, it was only a matter of time before this happened."

"You sound like you foresaw this."

"Indeed, I did." The noble girl purred, her composure returning to her as she boasted her chest out. "Time to storm the gates, as they say."

"W-What?" Shirou blinked, confused by her finishing line. "W-Why...why do they say that?"

* * *

**_{FATE---STAY---NIGHT}_**

* * *

"Illya!" Saber cried out to the snow fairy that held her precious stuffed lion out to her teasingly from an arms length. "Give him back to me!" The king of knights held out a hand expectantly, but Illya simply stuck out her tongue and ran to the other side of the dining table. Saber scowled at her defiant behavior and gave chase, following her around the table, leading the little homunculus to a corner of the room only to be shaken off when Illya feinted a run for the left, shooting past Saber on her right side when she lunged to the left to catch her. All of this was witnessed by an onlooking Rider and Sakura whom were standing by the entryway with amused smiles. That was until Illya lead the chase in their direction, ducking into Sakura's long skirt and escaping through the gap she forced between her legs, at which point Rider grabbed the kohai and pulled her out of the way before Saber could knock her over in her pursuit of the snow fairy.

"Illya!" Her scream faded away into the distance.

"That girl." Sakura groaned, embarrassed at having the girl lift her skirt. "If sempai was here I'm sure she'd calm down."

"True." Rider agreed with her master, letting her slip away from her arms. "Illya has been restless since Emiya started working longer shifts with Neko."

"Saber, too." Sakura observed, fiddling with one of her bangs. "I hope sempai doesn't make a habit of accepting these late shifts."

"So Emiya hasn't gotten back yet, huh?" A voice from behind the two women made them look over their shoulders to find Rin walking their way from the other end of the hall. She had a sack slung over her shoulder as she walked by them, likely a selection of books to further her extensive research. Her dedication to her studies of the magical arts was pretty admirable. "Whatever." The lovely magus said with a surprisingly laid back smile, flipping her hair to the side with her free hand as she passed Rider and Sakura, not bothering to look back at them. The kohai blinked at her older sister, confused by her lax response, but Rider knew well why Rin was taking Shirou's absence so well today, if last night's activities had anything to do with it. "I'll just be in my room if you guys need me." Those words hung around the corner after she turned, disappearing from view.

"Huh?" Sakura had seen far stranger things, surely, but that didn't keep Rin's attitude from unsettling her.

"Perhaps she had her recommended dosage of calcium for the day?" Rider offered to her master, giving her the false impression that she was just as confused about it as she was. Sakura didn't appear to be very accepting of that answer, not that Rider had expected it to appease her curiosity, but at least she wouldn't ask her if she knew anything about it. A clever liar Rider may be, but she was gradually coming to the realization that Sakura was beginning to get wiser in her youth.

The doorbell distracted Sakura from the suspicions that began to simmer in her mind, calming the bubbles of thought that threatened to rise to the surface. "Sempai?" The lovely Matou cut her conversation with Rider short and walked off to answer the door. Rider tried not to get chills from watching the familiar reaction. Sakura thinks _'Shirou'_ and everything else around her becomes nothing more than a hinderance from reaching her beloved sempai, friends included, Rider observed. True, she loved Sakura more than life itself, but she sometimes found herself worrying about Shirou Emiya and his future, because one thing was becoming apparent to her: Sakura would always find ways for herself to be a part of it, one way or another, and when she couldn't find a peaceful way...

_If Shirou is behind that door, something tells me he isn't alone. _The dark servant decided to follow her mistress to the door, if only to confirm that her prediction was accurate. When she caught up with Sakura the young woman had just opened the door, revealing a scene that Rider couldn't help but smirk upon; Shirou standing there in butler attire with his mistress Luviagelita Edelfelt. Well, the noble wasn't really the center of her attention to be completely honest. Rider just thought the tuxedo looked really classy on Shirou, and strangely fitting. Perhaps when this was all over he could ask the noble Luvia to let him hold on to it.

Sakura, on the other hand, wasn't so amused. "S-Sempai? Why are you wearing-" The kohai stopped, swiveling her eyes to Luvia. "Y-You're the person from before." She looked back to Shirou, her eyes expressing the shock she felt more than her face. "What's going on here, sempai?"

"Heeeey, Sakura." Shirou tried to greet her casually, but the girl's reaction to seeing him was making that a little hard. "Could we come in?"

"This is your house, sempa!" Sakura replied quickly, seemingly unnerved further by the request. "Come in!" She stepped aside, rigidly one might note, letting them walk in while keeping her eyes fixed on Luvia. The noble didn't appear to notice the glare the kohai was directing at her, with an intensity that would have made even Archer shiver. Her attention was far more concentrated on Rider for some reason.

"...Hm..." Luvia approached Rider, making the servant slightly nervous. She sized Rider up for a moment before grinning with a simple, "Interesting."

"Excuse me, Luvia." Shirou called her attention.

"Yes, Emiya?" The girl whipped around to meet his eyes, drill curls bouncing with the motion.

"Let me introduce my friends." He announced politely, gesturing to the staring Sakura. "This is my classmate and long time friend, Sakura."

"Yes, I met you before, didn't I?" Luvia told the young Matou with an amused tone as she extended a hand out to her.

"You did..." Sakura opted for taking the other girl's hand for a brief handshake despite her already growing dislike for her.

Shirou cleared his throat to get Luvia's attention again, the tension developing between her and Sakura not lost on him. "And the young woman you were staring at earlier would be Rider, Sakura's cousin."

"Her cousin" The noble girl mused, the grin returning to her face. She greeted Rider with a polite curtsy. "Charmed, Rider."

"Likewise." Rider returned the greeting with a slight bow of her head.

"That's right." Shirou nodded before gesturing to the hall with a gloved hand. "Let me lead you to the dining room. It'll be far more comfortable than standing here at the entrance, and I'm sure the other girls will be there."

"And I'm looking forward to meeting them." Luvia responded cheerfully. "Lead the way, Emiya." Her butler nodded obediently, much to the displeasure of Sakura and the amusement of Rider, and took lead, guiding her further within the house. Seeing nothing else left for them to do, Rider took Sakura's hand with a reassuring nod and persuaded the kohai to follow along. Standing and staring wasn't going to do her much good anyway.

"Here we are." Shirou stopped to the side of the entryway to the dining quarters, gesturing for her to enter with a hand and a slight bow. Luvia giggled delightedly at his act and went through, stopping with a cursory of the room and its furniture before walking over to the table and sitting down, quite naturally one might add. Shirou was surprised she didn't request a chair. Speaking of Shirou...

"Sempai." Sakura whispered to him, casting glances at the foreigner from the entryway where she stood with him, Rider standing behind her as was her respective spot. "You accepted the job, is that it?"

"Um...yeah." Shirou answered her after a short pause. "Yes, I did."

"Is this what you've been doing this entire time?" She leaned forward, bring her face closer to his much to his discomfort. "This is why you've been late all this week?"

Shirou placed a hand on her shoulder, gently moving her away. "Where is everyone else?"

"I'm right behind you, Shirou." All the hairs on said young man's neck stood straight up when Saber's voice came from behind him. He turned around to see his dear servant in her usual manner of dress, clutching her stuffed lion in one hand, and holding a staring Illya by the collar in the other. The snow fairy gave Shirou a look over, mesmerized by his butler uniform for some reason, before a devilish smile worked across her face. "It's a nice look for you, onii-chan. I really like it!"

"Th-thanks, Illya." Shirou smiled at her briefly before looking to Saber who had the strangest look on her face. "Why are you staring at me that way, Saber?"

"...I don't know." Saber answered him, blinking curiously. "Something inside of me...agrees with this look of yours."

Illya snickered, "You mean, Dark Sab-"

"Ahahaha!" Shirou interrupted the little homunculus with his forced laughter, wanting very much for her to not mention that particular individual. "Thanks, Saber. Actually, I'd like to talk to all of you about this outfit. If you could all just join my employer in the dining room"

"Employer?" Saber inquired curiously. "A new job, Master?"

"S-Something like that." He replied vaguely. "Where's Rin, by the way?"

"In her room." Sakura answered from behind him, getting him to turn back around to face her. "She's doing research."

Shirou swallowed. He originally hoped that Rin would just happen to be in the dining room when he came in with Luvia; it would have saved him a lot of trouble, but this was going to make things a little difficult. She was definitely going to want some answers when she saw him dressed like this. "Fine. I'll g-get her then. Meanwhile, why don't you girls get acquainted with miss Edelfelt." Sakura didn't immediately comply with that suggestion, staring at her sempai for a moment first before she finally decided to walk in and join Luvia. Shirou expected Rider to say something to him before she followed her mistress inside, but she said nothing, only passing him with a smirk that seemed to foretell his doom. Shirou saw something move in his peripheral and turned his head slightly to see that Saber had gotten around him.

"Why does this feel ominous, Shirou?" Saber asked, letting Illya down on her feet. "Have you gotten yourself into trouble?"

Shirou smiled at Saber, his best friend, his closest partner, and he felt his self confidence return to him. There was nothing for him to fear here. "Nah." He told her playfully, waving her worries away with a hand. "I just want to straighten things out, that's all."

"Very well." The golden haired knight nodded, mirroring his smile. "Go get Rin, then."

Shirou ignored the sinking feeling in his stomach when she said that. He wasn't sure why, but the idea of Rin and Luvia meeting did that to him. "Yeah...I will." He gave her a nod and turned to walk down the hall. Saber watched until he turned the corner and grabbed Illya's hand, walking into the dining room to join the other women at the table. She took a seat at the end of the table, across from Sakura and Rider who were seated at the other end, and Illya settled into her lap.

Luvia brought her attention to Illya and they both locked eyes.

"You remind me very much of Irisviel von Einsbern." Luvia opened the conversation. "The resemblance between you two is just uncanny."

Illya narrowed her eyes at the mention of her mother. "And you are?"

_Meanwhile..._

Rin straightened out in her chair slowly when there was a knock at her door. "Yes?" She called over her shoulder, leaning against the back of the chair with one arm. "The door's open, by the way. Just come in."

"Alright." Shirou's voice came from the other side of the door, bringing a mischievous smirk to the magus' face.

_What a boy._ Rin stifled a giggle as she slipped off her glasses. _I let him have sex with me once and now he's skipping work to see me. _

"Hey, Rin?" Shirou opened the door and stepped in getting a few blinks out of the girl in question as she processed the image entering her line of vision. Shirou Emiya was wearing a tuxedo, and a very expensive looking one at that. Now, Rin Tohsaka wasn't a girl that came to conclusions very quickly, she had come to learn more than once that doing that could cost a person their life; perhaps other things just a valuable. She figured he was behaving kind of weird last night, and maybe she might have contributed to that with her jealousy, but this was a bit much.

Shirou saw her blushing red and quirked a brow. "Rin...are you alright?"

"I-I don't quite know at the moment." Rin answered him, her voice quivering with each word.

"You don't sound alright." Shirou approached her worriedly, holding a hand to her forehead when he was close enough. "Are you running a fever or something?"

"N-No, it has nothing to do with that!" Rin said angrily, swatting his hand away. "What are you here for anyway?"

"I want you to come with me." Shirou told her firmly without any hesitation in his voice.

Rin felt a pounding in her chest, fear and excitement threatening to overwhelm her all at once. "What do you mean?" She swallowed. "Right now?"

Shirou nodded, holding a hand out to her. "Right now." He saw her hold up a hand hesitatingly, bringing it slowly to rest in his, but just as their fingertips made contact she pulled away as quickly as she could almost as if she had touched something scalding hot. "W-What's wrong with you, Rin?"

"I don't think I'm ready for this, Shirou!" She blurted out, drawing both of her arms toward her chest, eyes shut tightly. "It's moving too fast, don't you think?"

"What's moving too fast?" The young man asked in alarm, looking over his shoulder. He tensed up, looking around the room, but when he saw nothing that could be considered a threat to their lives he looked back to Rin with a confused expression. "Wait, wait, wait." He relaxed, his voice dull. "What exactly are you talking about?"

"Huh?" The girl's shoulders sagged at his tone. "What do you mean you idiot?"

"That's what I'd like to ask you."

Her lips trembled as she tried to form the proper words. "Weren't you going to..." She paused, staring into his eyes for the answer before she could embarrass herself by asking the question. "Um..." She cleared her throat, drawing back her composure. "You said you wanted me to come with you, right?"

"Yeah." Shirou nodded again, very slowly this time, scrutinizing her face carefully. "To the dining room. I want you to meet someone."

Fear entered Rin's mind again, this time accompanied by an irritating heat in her chest similar to rising fury. "What do you mean? Who is this...person you want me to meet?" Her hands curled to tight fists on her lap, cracking audibly.

"Just my employer." He answered her, glancing at her hands when her knuckles cracked.

Rin's expression relaxed, as did the rest of her body. "Oh! Why didn't you tell me that when you first came in?"

"Okay..." Shirou blinked, unsure of how to respond. "...Yeah."

...

...

Rin followed behind Shirou as he lead the way to the living room where this mysterious employer was waiting for them. Something bothered Rin, though. "Hey, Emiya-kun?"

"Yeah?" He responded, glancing at her over his shoulder.

"So this isn't Neko-san? This is a new employer?"

"Yeah. I got myself a new job..." He hesitated before finishing his sentence. "As a butler."

"A butler?" Rin's eyes widened with disbelief. "Wow, how did you land yourself that kind of job? Don't you need training for that sort of position?"

"I guess I got lucky!" Shirou laughed uneasily. "It's not something I qualified for today, actually."

"You mean, you interviewed for this job yesterday?" Rin inquired curiously.

"You could say the interview took place a little earlier than that."

"Ooooh, I see." Rin's voice indicated a sense of understanding on her part. "So this is why you've been late these past few days, right?"

Shirou choked on his spit, but managed a smile. "Hahaaa...can't hide anything from you, huh, Rin?"

"Whatever." She flipped her hair to the side, brushing off his attempt at buttering her up. "So is this paying more than your other job?"

"I'm not sure yet to be honest." Shirou answered her, reaching the entryway of the dining quarters. "After you." He stepped aside for her, gesturing for her to walk in.

"Comes with the territory, huh, Emiya-kun?" Rin quipped at him with a sly grin before turning away from him to enter the dining room. Of course, upon setting her sights on the individual sitting at the table so smugly, hands folded on her lap, conversing with Saber, Rin Tohsaka found that her legs would not budge any further. Her mind pushed all of the thoughts that had been occupying her mind into the trash and began the process of putting two and two together. First, Shirou comes late to the house four days ago. He tells her that the reason he was unable to come at the originally scheduled time was due to being held up by someone. This someone might have been Luviagelita Edelfelt. No, scratch that, it was Luviagelita Edelfelt. Okay, moving on. Shirou was mysteriously absent to their usual lunch period together the following day. She decided that it was nothing of consequence, that maybe Issei had kept him busy with an errand in the student council meeting room again, but that wasn't the case was it? He was with Luviagelita Edelfelt, wasn't he? The reason he came back home late that evening was not because of Neko-san keeping him in for extra hours of work, nooooo, he was having his interview with Luviagelita Edelfelt. He just told her that in the hall, didn't he? That would also mean that his trip with Mitsizuri Ayako to the gorcery store might have been a lie to cover up for his clandestine activities, which would explain the archery captain's appearance at the school roof the following afternoon to muscle in on their private lunch periods. Ayako scratches shirou's back, he scratches her back, huh? It all makes sense now. So that evening Shirou, once again, was not at Neko-san's store. He was working for someone else that evening. He was working with the enemy, and that same night he returned and lied about it to her face; lied about everything.

"Um...Rin?" Shirou called her name in a small voice when she didn't move. He thought about reaching out and tapping her, but the moment he lifted his hand to carry out the action he felt a strong force of darkness emanate from Rin. It was so chilling that the young Emiya couldn't stop his hand from trembling as he let it fall to his side. This aura, it was killing intent, wasn't it? Oh dear, was Rin going to slaughter everyone in the room? Was she going to kill him first?

"No, Rin..." The lovely magus whispered to herself, taking in a long breath before letting it out slowly. "Calm down...calm down." She shook her head and wiggled her fingers, counting back from ten. When she was done crushing the feeling of fury that had almost taken control of her she managed to bring a smile to her face, a fake one, but a smile nonetheless. At that moment Luviagelita stopped talking to Saber, somehow becoming aware that someone else had entered the room, and slowly turned her head to see Rin standing in front of the entryway.

She returned Rin's strained smile.

"Hello, Rin." Luvia greeted her rival in a cool, friendly voice. "It's been a long time, hasn't it?"

"Luvia." Rin bowed her head in greeting, speaking in the same exact tone of voice that the other girl had. "Words have never been so true."

The rest of the occupants of the house all blinked at this fascinating interaction and could only find one word to describe what they were thinking at that very moment. _**"Huh?"**_

* * *

**_LUVIAGELITA, ROUTE ONE-NORMAL END_**


	4. Another Possibility, Glimpse One

Disclaimer: _I do not own Fate/ Stay Night or any of its characters..._

**_Fate/ Stay Night: Alternate Routes_**

**_Scenario Four: SPECIAL_**

_By Traingham_

* * *

_Have you ever stopped and asked yourself when you lost faith? I'm not talking about faith in the religious sense. I'm referring to the faith that a child grows up with, that good will always triumph over evil. Let's not turn this into a complex subject just yet, let's observe a simple concept before we do that. As a child we think to ourselves that villains never reap the rewards of their crimes because there will always be a hero around to get the drop on them and put an end to their schemes. We're shown this basic principle in fairy tales, children cartoons, and your regular b-movie. We expect that before the comic strip ends, or the show hits its climax, justice will be served and everyone gets to return home to their family and enjoy the rest of their day._

_We believe in that sort of thing, until one day we realize the truth._

_The heroes and super heroes of our fantasy eventually become just that, a fantasy. At some point in our lives we come to accept that murder and thievery is a matter of course, one that more often than not, succeeds before the criminal is brought to justice. Suddenly villains are regular people to us. They can be the person we pass on the street, or the shady politicians that we read about in the newspaper whenever a new scandal pops up. Sometimes they can even be the people we depend on to prevent crimes from happening. The heroes that rarely do stand up for justice are considered vigilantes in the eyes of society, people that are looked down upon because they break the laws that protect criminals. We never stop and think to ourselves that there's something wrong about all of this, that maybe we're all fools for just sitting back and shrugging our shoulders whenever a person we barely know is beaten to death in some dark alley, or a young lady is taken against her will in the half lit stairwell of a parking lot. We just accept it, and if you don't others call you crazy, or...I guess...you become a vigilante._

* * *

Another evening began as the sun set in the horizon and the members of the Emiya estate gathered at the table for another exquisite dinner, courtesy of Rin Tohsaka in her latest attempt to trump Shirou Emiya in their ongoing competition to claim the title of best cook. This was, of course, banning Sakura Matou since she was in a league above them even if they did not want to acknowledge as much. The magus sat across from her culinary rival with a smug grin on her lovely face as the young man stared down at the variety of dishes that were masterfully set out on the dining table like some promotion out those restaurant commercials that always caught Saber's attention. Said blonde knight, who was usually the first to defend Shirou's culinary honor whenever it was threatened, could only stare at the choices laid out before her with poorly concealed anticipation. Sakura's eyes kept on traveling from the food on the table to her sister, to her beloved sempai, and back to the table as though an inner monologue was taking place and Taiga kept wiping her mouth with her gradually dampening sleeve. Rider sat on Shirou's left side with the usual look of disinterest while Illya sat across from Saber, trying to score points with her young brother by casting disgusted looks at the food despite the contradicting sentiments that her stomach had on the matter.

"Looks delicious, eh, Emiya-kun?" Rin taunted Shirou with a gleam in her eyes as she enjoyed the way his eyebrows furrowed at the taste of defeat. She winked at him and went on, "Sometimes you'll find that a woman's touch is what it really takes to creating a genuine masterpiece."

"Don't act so victorious." He grumbled. "There's always tomorrow."

"Yeah?" She smirked sinisterly, "Well, that's never promised, last time I checked."

"You wanna make something of it?" Shirou growled as he leaned up in her face with a scowl.

Rin furrowed her eyes with disdain, "Your funeral, pal." She snarled back, pressing cheek to cheek with him. They looked like two school delinquents getting ready to rumble, and everyone had their bets placed on Shirou. One less woman in the house meant less competition; all unfortunate implications aside. Unfortunately for them the news reporter on T.V felt that what he had to say was far more pressing at the very moment, exclaiming, **_"Breaking news!"_** With a dramatic jerk of his head his toupee was almost flung off the screen.

Shirou backed down from Rin, seemingly forgetting their conflict altogether and directed his attention to the television screen without another word. The magus blinked when he resumed his seat without attempting to resolve things with her and narrowed her eyes at him irritatedly like a woman scorned. The other women at the table with the exception of Rider also exhibited similar reactions to his sudden shift in interest. It wasn't like him to drop things with Rin so lightly, not like he did just now.

As for the reason behind this peculiar behavior, there was a helpful explanation in order to satiate your curiosity. A week after Shirou's birthday a news announcement of the exact nature came on during dinner, Sakura's day if not mistaken. A vigilante by the name of Velvet Rose had taken to the streets making headlines with her heroic endeavors and stealing hearts with her blurry photo shots. She was the talk of the net, the subject of interest in a few late night shows, and Shirou's newest obsession. Almost every conversation with the young man usually ended with her somehow becoming the main focus and quite frankly, it was rubbing a few people the wrong way, most notably the people that lived with him. Perhaps that might have been the reason for the television going off without warning.

"W-What ju..." Shirou turned around thinking that it was Tohsaka's doing to find her without the remote in hand. "Huh?" The actual culprit turned out to be Saber, holding the remote in her hand with a stern expression that almost appeared to be reprimanding him.

"That was rude of you, Shirou." The blonde knight berated him. "Were you not speaking with Rin just a moment ago?"

"Yeah, but-"

"S-she's right, sempai." Sakura joined in, glaring at him as if it had been her who felt disrespect toward his actions. Rider continued eating, occasionally picking at Shirou's plate with her chopsticks while he was preoccupied with the others. At certain points the dark servant alternated stares between her plate and his plate like a gourmet on a highly sponsored cooking show. Either Shirou's plate had magical properties, or Rin specially prepared the food on the young Emiya's plate so that the flavor was more pleasing to the palate. Rider set out to solve this mystery, discreetly switching plates with Shirou while he stared down the other female residents, however, upon safely securing the mystical dish the food tasted just the same. Another unsolved case for detective Rider, but the trail had not gone cold just yet.

Shirou felt like his back was against the wall, "Sakura-"

"I'm the one you have to apologize to." Rin cut him off, bringing his attention back to her. "Not Sakura."

"Guh..." He looked to Illya and the little homonculus upturned her nose as if the mere sight of him insulted her. "F-Fuji-nee?" He turned to his teacher to find her ignoring him childishly, head turned away with a clearly miffed expression on her tomboyish features. _W-What did I do wrong? _Finding himself at a total loss he turned back to Rin pathetically and apologized, "I'm sorry..."

"You're forgiven, Emiya-kun." Rin patted him on the head like a mother accepting her son's mistakes. She pulled back her hand and gestured to the delicious spread, smiling like a saint, knowing well that her actions were doing nothing but irritating her culinary rival/love interest/familiar...kind of. "Now, let's all enjoy the food that I've cooked." Saber didn't need to be told twice, taking advantage of the magus' victory over her master to rustle up as much grub as she could without feeling the unwelcome sting of guilt. _'Serves him right' _the gluttonous side of her said with a self satisfying nod as she popped a delicious morsel in her mouth, while the faithful side screamed in anguish _'FORGIVE ME MASTEEEERRRR! I HAVE FORSAKEN YOOOOOUU!'_. If you stared at her face really hard you could see her eyebrows twitching as the drama played out in her mind.

_Whatever._ The defeated young man thought to himself, rolling his eyes, but he decided it best to keep the peace. Better to submit to their whims and bow his head in shame, or they might all jump him at once like one of those ridiculous super sentai shows that he found Illya snobbishly critiquing every Saturday morning. Upon pointing it out to her one day, she began writing her own column on the web. Hits and hits like you wouldn't believe, but anyway- "I suppose it would be in bad taste for me to ignore your efforts to compete with my culinary prowess." The redhead did his best to sound smug as he seated himself with the rest of the family, nose upturned like a certain someone that Rin couldn't stand. "I'll humor your ego for a bit." He inwardly noted something being out of place about his plate, but he dug in anyway, oblivious to the surreptitious glances that Rider sent his way from beside him.

"That's the spirit, Emiya." Rin smiled in spite of his words, although the bulging vein on her forehead said otherwise. "Denial is the first step to mourning a loss, after all."

"Alright, that's the end of that, you two." Fujimaru finally acted the role of the guardian much to the surprise of everyone else at the table. Illya alternated looks between the homeroom teacher and her hot tea, and decidedly took that moment to down it all in one gulp just to see if she would wake up from this dream. Unfortunately for her the only results from the experiment were a smarting tongue and two globs of tears building at the corner of her eyes. Shirou offered his older sister his best consoling look, earning a pained smile from her in return. "I say food is food." The Taiga wagged a finger at both Shirou and Rin whom exchanged discreet looks at that comical line. "And food is to be enjoyed, not paraded like a trophy." And with that Taiga went back to wolfing down her dish, setting things back into their proper place as it should be.

Shirou and Rin were thoroughly disturbed by this odd turn of events, because Fujimaru actually said something worthwhile...and it stung. It stung so much that the two looked at each other in a silent apology.

"Yeah, I guess you're right, Fuji-nee." Shirou agreed with her, a grin forming on his face before he added. "For once."

"Frankly, I didn't know you were capable." Rin teased the teacher with a grin.

"Being the mature, _young_ lady that I am, I'll let those comments slide." and yet Fujimaru could not conceal the twitch of displeasure that those comments brought to her left brow.

Shirou's eyes lingered on the television, but he was sure there wouldn't be another peep from the electronic piece for the rest of the night, especially not with Saber guarding the remote. He might just lose a hand if he reached for it. "Man..." Shirou groaned quietly, failing to keep the attention of the others from being drawn toward him when he did. He noticed their eyes on him and wisely shoveled his mouth with food before they could inquire on the cause for his dampened spirits. Not that they were ignorant to the cause, but anything to make him uncomfortable about that subject, as Sakura was about to do.

"Sempai." Sakura called the attention of her beloved Shirou. "I don't see why you're so interested in this vigilante anyway." She pouted, cutely one might add.

Shirou swallowed quickly, jumping to defend his new idol. "What could possibly be _uninteresting_ about a vigilante? She's doing us a favor by risking her life to keep the streets safe."

"Well, yeah..." The kohai felt that he wasn't wrong in his reasoning, but she didn't want to back down. "B-But if you think about it...there's much more interesting things out there." She was, of course, hinting to the fact that he was having dinner with King Athur, Medusa, Taiga, and three fully competent mages, one of which was a homunculus that tried to put his soul in a doll at one point in time. Funny how time allowed him to forgive that major detail. Depending on the cycle (_Don't ask_) Sakura might have even tried to kill him at several points, and he might have discovered that he himself was something of great interest. Were these stories for another time? No, they were stories for your time...not shared by mine.

"She's got a point, Emiya-kun." Rin backed her sister up, of which Sakura's appreciation was noticeable through a faint smile. "A common vigilante really isn't all that much of a hot topic."

"But that's the thing, Rin." Shirou told her, motioning to her with his eating utensils as he did. He missed another sly swipe of Rider's chopsticks to his plate when he did. "Vigilantes aren't common at all. You rarely hear about people who take it upon themselves to protect others."

"Law enforcement?" Rider spoke up from beside him after swallowing what was in her mouth, getting a flinch from him.

He turned his head to regard her, albeit, with little enthusiasm. "Well, they're paid for their services."

Rin scoffed, the expression on her lovely face seemingly mocking him. "And you really think this _'Velvet Rose' _character is doing this for selfless reasons?" The magus paused to take a sip from her glass, setting it down on the table with a roll of her eyes. "She's probably just a thrill seeker, Emiya-kun. Once she's had her fill of excitement she'll just disappear, and if that doesn't happen first, the media will eventually get tired of her and set their sights on the next good headline."

Shirou almost appeared to be insulted by her words, and Fujimura could see it in his eyes after Rin was done delivering her diatribe. "Actually, I think this Velvet Rose girl is pretty cool!" The older woman chimed in, forcing a chuckle to lighten the gradually darkening mood. Knowing well how much Shirou admired defenders of justice, her big sister instincts refused to allow the girls to cheapen his image of the vigilante, even if she was to make an enemy of them in the process. "Thrills or not, how many people do you hear about try to do some good for the world?"

"That may be a gross exaggeration, Fujimura-san." Saber spoke, setting down her bowl for the time being. "Her efforts do nothing to affect the overall well being of the world."

Taiga scratched her cheek sheepishly. "Well, fine, so the world is still running wild with miscreants and all around bad guys, but Edmund Burke said it himself-"

"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing." Illya took the reigns from her, getting a glare from the teacher. The little homunculus grinned at Taiga and continued the argument from there, "So in the end you all talk about this vigilante as someone not worth onii-chan's time when in fact she's so much more interesting than...well..." Illya's eyes passed over Rin innocently before she finished, "...other women he could spend his time with."

"Thank you, Illya!" Shirou cried out passionately, happy to have some support on his side, and yet for some reason he suddenly felt even smaller than before. Perhaps it had something to do with the way Rin and Saber's eyes sharpened on him like daggers in the night after he whole heartedly agreed with what Illya had to say on the matter. It wouldn't be the first time that his brain failed to sync with the suicide operations his mouth periodically embarked on.

That last one went right over Taiga's head, but something told her that if there was ever good time to depart there would never be a better time than now. "Well, my compliments to the chef!" The yakuza princess rose from the table with a smile to Rin before waving to the others. "Unlike you guys I have business to keep up with so I'd better head home. Keep up with your studies, or I'll give ya hell later!" And with that charming advice she headed for the entry way to make her exit for the night.

Shirou rose quickly when she did, alerting the girls with his sudden movement. "I'll see you out, Fuji-nee!" The young man offered, following after her hurriedly.

"Oh no, don't worry about me!" She waved him off with a smile, but he kept after her regardless with a polite insistence that was all too well acted out to be genuine.

When the both of them had vanished from sight Rin set her sights upon Illya with a growl of, "What kind of talk was that earlier, Einsbern? I'm loads more interesting than some woman that prowls the streets at night for cheap thrills!" Of course, had Archer been around to hear that leave her mouth he might have said something unsavory in response. Well, good thing he wasn't, because Rin might have wasted a command spell on something most unfortunate like, for example, ordering him to work in drag at the red light district for her...and harbor no doubts that she would.

Illya grinned, oh so knowingly. "You're so vain, Rin-san. Who was talking about you anyway?" The snow fairy took a sip from her warm cup of tea. "I could have been referring to anyone, you know?" She directed a coy look at the annoyed magus and giggled sinisterly. "Or could it be that you have insecurities about your bland character?"

Rin grinned darkly at the little homunculus, coming close to reaching the limit of her tolerance. "Keep darting that forked tongue and I'll present you with a character establishing moment."

Illya took the challenge without hesitation. "Coming from a second rate magus, I don't see any reason to cower from such a weak threat." Illya returned the grin full force. "Come on, I'll take you." And this might have gotten dirty if not for the timely intervention of Sakura Matou's '_Sempai Senses' _alerting her of something amiss like-

"Sempai is taking a while to get back." The plum haired kohai noted with a look of concern. "Could he be talking with Taiga-san outside?" She wondered aloud, drawing the attention of her fellow diners.

Rider, who had just finished cleaning off the contents of Shirou's neglected plate with her chopsticks, decided to take this opportunity to lay her master's concerns to rest. "Perhaps he was in need of fresh air and decided to take a walk around the area?" Said with the innocence of one who was only offering a possibility, and yet it was so startlingly possible, implying things upon things upon...things.

This statement, unfortunately, did little to appease the volatile mood that was gradually growing in strength among the female residents of the Emiya household, with even Saber setting down her eating utensils to express how displeased she was by this development. In fact, it only made things worse, though with Rider to blame it was rather debatable whether that wasn't the aim of her words all along. With the seeds of darkness being nurtured by their winding minds Rider concluded that it was time for her to leave. "Thank you for the meal, Rin-san." The dark servant expressed her gratitude to the lovely magus with a slight bow of her head before rising from the table. "I'll be reading in my room should any of you need me." And left, she did.

The other four sat there and stared at each other in brittle silence, contemplating over which one of them should take the blame for scaring off Shirou Emiya.

_...**Meanwhile**..._

The Fuyuki Bridge was a place of reflection for Shirou Emiya, poetically enough. Here at the path between destinations was the domain where he had come to make many important choices in the past (Some in alternate possibilities), some that turned out for the best, while many others turned out for the worst. That wasn't to imply that Shirou made many bad decisions when the cards were laid out on the table, because while one could say that he did, most of those instances had left him no choice but to choose the unthinkable over logical convention. That aside, Shirou Emiya had once again found himself here at the Fuyuki Bridge, though luckily it wasn't to make a life changing decision. No, tonight he just wanted a moment to himself, one that wouldn't be in danger of corroding into madness as many a moment was prone to in the Emiya household.

"A hero of justice." Shirou said to no one in particular, holding his right hand out before his eyes to examine as if he expected the answers to all of his question to materialize on his palm. "Why am I suddenly so focused on _that_ again? After the girls entered my life I had become so content. I didn't concern myself very much with those ideals anymore because I was...happy. I was happy to have a new family, but now I'm not sure anymore. Have I really become content with my life despite setting aside my ideals?" He closed his eyes so he could envision their smiles and their voices. He didn't want to lose that, but nothing would last forever. One day Rin and Sakura would set out to pursue the futures that were ahead of them. When that happened he was sure that everything would change.

"I'll probably travel to London with Rin and Saber when that time comes, but what will I do then?" His eyes narrowed in annoyance. "Will I follow Rin for the rest of my life...or will I pursue my own path like I originally intended?" He shook his head with a cynical laugh. It died in his throat with a somber tone. "Path? What am I talking about? I never really had a straight line drawn out for myself to begin with. Archer said it himself once before, I've lived my life so far on borrowed ideals." He looked at his hand again, clenching it with a crack of his knuckles. "So when will I make it my own?"

"What is this I see before me?" Shirou cringed reflexively at words that weren't his own. "Shirou Emiya has gotten bored with his harem so he's come here in the middle of the night to wait on some unfortunate female passerby to force his insatiable lust for the flesh upon?" This voice, this inflectionless tone that mocks him so thoughtlessly that it comes as a natural occurrence. It could only belong to one person.

"Why'd it have to be tonight?" Shirou muttered under his breath, but he turned his head to regard his encounter for the evening, Caren Ortensia; a rather stunning young woman of bewitching gold eyes, and lily white hair that tumbled over her shoulders and fell down her back. One might describe her as angelic looking from the appearance of her delicate facial features, stoic and unchanging, but her attire for the evening kind of ruined that image. This particular individual was supposedly a member of the church, a priestess/nun if you will, however, the image that normally came to a person's mind when they envisioned a woman of that title was pretty conservative; black robes, a habit, the usual outfit that was associated with a woman of the cloth. Caren was pretty conservative with her choice of apparel down to the waistline. After that all bets were off (_skirts and pants included in her case, though she had the sense to keep her stockings on._), at least during the evening, anyway. She maintained the whole holy woman disguise very well during the morning to afternoon hours. "Why is it that your first reaction when seeing me is to accuse me of carrying on a shady agenda?"

"I see a ripe young man of your reputation standing here in the middle of the night, all alone. What else should I believe?" Caren replied smoothly, her expression suspiciously calm for a person who claimed to be meeting with a rapist. Wait a second...

"My reputation?" Shirou leaned back, perplexed by her statement. "What reputation? I have no such thing!"

"Well..." Her eyes shifted away from him slyly. "It's certainly nothing to be proud about." Caren regarded him again, crossing her arms. "Fine then, what could possibly be your reason for coming here so late in the night?" Shirou could have sworn that he caught the tell tale signs of a smirk take the place of her usual frown, but now that he thought on it it could have just been his imagination. "Trouble in paradise, Shirou Emiya?"

"I doubt it would hold your interest long enough to listen through it." The young Emiya grumbled, setting his eyes upon the reflection of the city lights from the water below.

"Don't hold back on my account, Emiya." Caren responded, shrugging her shoulders with the same stoic expression as always. It was strange every time he drew the comparisons between this young woman and a certain deceased priest, if that man ever was the genuine article to begin with. Were all of the clergy members assigned to Fuyuki Church this eccentric? "After all, it's my job to listen to others pour out their hearts. I promise not to judge you, no matter how depraved, or perverse, or disgusting, or tasteless your story might be. All children of God are welcome to speak with me, even those with the burden of sin upon their shoulders and you are no different."

Of course, after hearing all of that spill out of her mouth Shirou felt even less willing to speak with her. "Why do I get the feeling your impression of me isn't very upstanding?"

"What have I ever done to make that cross your mind?" The nun inquired innocently, cocking her head to the side as she did. "Might it be possible that you possess a guilty conscience? Any recent crimes that you wish to confess to?"

"Recent?" Shirou bristled at the indirect accusation. "What do you mean recent? I've never committed any crimes to begin with!"

"Such a defensive reaction." A sly grin flashed briefly, though it may have just been a trick of light since her lovely face appeared expressionless. "Don't let it bother you if you have nothing to hide."

"Ah, never mind." Shirou waved her away, finally reaching the end of his patience with his tormentor. "Why don't you just keep walking along, evil nun? Don't you have better things to do with your time aside from bothering me?"

"Put such conceited notions to rest, Emiya." Caren told him in an unaffected voice. "I was just going for an evening stroll. Our meeting here is by chance and nothing more, nothing less."

"So, in other words, you have nothing better to do at the moment." Shirou stated for her gloomily.

"Oh, what a stubborn man you are." She remarked, casually taking her place leaning against the rail beside him. "If you have something to say then get it off your chest while I'm still willing." She fixated her eyes to his profile as he continued to stare at the water below. They remained there side by side for a time in a strangely profound silence before Shirou opened his mouth to speak to her again.

"Fine then..." Shirou turned his attention to the woman standing beside him, meeting her eye to eye with a serious expression. "What is your idea of justice, Caren-san?"

The nun stared for a moment longer, blinking before she replied. "The administering of due punishment in response to immoral actions."

"Fair enough." Shirou chuckled, intriguing his companion. "How often do you think justice succeeds?"

"Justice never assumes a definite form, so the answer is debatable." Caren replied thoughtfully, catching Shirou off guard with the tone of her voice. "After all, the justice you believe in may not be the justice that others believe in."

"I'm talking about the prevention of crime." Shirou clarified himself to her. "How could that not be justice?"

"Well, that's the thing, Emiya." She told him, her expression as unreadable as ever. "The circumstances of the crime may not always necessarily be _evil _in nature, though it my appear that way from the viewpoint of a bystander. Since we're on the subject, what inspired this sudden fascination?" She leaned toward him slightly without drawing his attention to the subtle movement.

Shirou scoffed softly while turning away from her briefly. "It's not sudden. I've been thinking on it for a while..."

"Would this have anything to do with the appearance of that shady character, Velvet Rose?" Caren asked, one eyebrow raising ever so slightly.

"Geez, it seems like no one has anything good to say about her."

"So she is the reason that you're out here." The woman beside him said with a hint of mischief. "Emiya Shirou doesn't just prey upon any woman it would seem."

"Stop referring to me as though I'm some sort of rapist." He said with a deadpan expression, already accustomed to this treatment, sadly enough. "Anyway, yeah, she's the reason I'm here. I just don't get it."

"What?" Caren asked, closing her eyes as she scratched her chin before opening them again.

"Well, Rin and the others don't think so highly of her despite her noble deeds. I mean, shouldn't we be happy that she's risking her life to keep the streets safe?"

"Velvet Rose, hmm?" The angelic nun mused softly. "She's been a popular subject of talk around here with the kids and young adults, believe it or not. I suppose you could say she's becoming something of a role model."

"Exactly."

"But what she's doing is abnormal in the eyes of the older residents in the area." Caren observed, piquing Shirou curiosity. "Emiya, you seem to be discontent with the overall attitude of society, in general, about vigilantes." She turned her head to regard him, a small upward curve present at the ends of her lips. "I'm right, aren't I?"

The redhead appeared to be slightly disturbed by her spot on observation, but he responded with a somewhat reserved, "...Yeah."

"Fine..." She appeared incredibly bored at that moment, punctuating the mood with a well timed sigh that succeeded in annoying her conversation partner. "I've nothing more pressing to attend to tonight, so I'll humor you. The reason people don't trust individuals like _'Velvet Rose'_ is because normal individuals simply don't get out of bed one morning and decide to act as a street cleaner. The regular upstanding citizen doesn't jump at the opportunity to get involved in life threatening situations because it's far easier, and safer to just turn their head in the opposite direction and go about their own private business in the presence of trouble. As a result people have become desensitized by criminal activity, fully aware of it, but treating it as a matter of course in their day."

"I know that." Shirou quipped sarcastically. "What does that have to do with Velvet Rose?"

"People don't break the mold unless there is a personal agenda at work, that's what." Caren answered him, turning around to lean back against the bridge rail. She allowed her head to fall back, looking up at the faintly visible stars twinkling above, disguising the passing airliners that were present in moving blinking lights. The way she appeared at that moment, hair hanging back with the bridge lights gracing her, it was like admiring a beautiful figure out of some tragic work of art. The cunning sister was very well aware of the way Shirou simply stared in awe of her, but she found it within the mercy of her soul to resist the usual urge to tease him. "Or at least that's how an average person would rationalize the actions of a vigilante."

Shirou recovered from his stupor when she spoke to him again, responding to her words with an absent–"Hmm?"

"Velvet Rose has ulterior motives." The picturesque maiden clarified for him straight out.

"That's ridiculous." Shirou argued, quirking a brow incredulously. "What ulterior motives? It's not like she's gaining anything from this."

"Isn't she?" Caren challenged him with stroking her hand along the rail smoothly so that it rested beside his elbow. "There's only one way to find out for yourself, isn't there?"

Shirou stared at her silently, trying to make sense of what she was undoubtedly implying. "You mean...become a vigilante myself?"

"Why not?" For the first time during their conversation the nun smirked, and the curl in her lips remained plastered upon her lovely face, devious in nature. "Wouldn't this be a great opportunity to try out something new and exciting?" Which was amusing hearing out of her mouth since Shirou could see the apparent excitement simply welling within her as she thought about it. She was deriving a sort of guilty pleasure from this, he just knew it. "She's doing it, so why shouldn't you? If anyone can become a defender of justice it's you, Shirou Emiya. That is, after all, your inescapable fate in the design of this world."

"My fate?"

"Really, an echo?" Caren questioned, seemingly amused by his predictable response judging from the cat-like smirk on her lovely face. "That's mighty cliche, even for you. Anyway, I'd best be on my way back to the church. I wouldn't want those stray dogs to get too comfortable in my absence." The nun's expression reverted to its default mode of stoicism and she offered him a slight nod before giving him her back and walking in the other direction. "Enjoy the rest of your evening, hero of justice."

Shirou watched on silently until she was nothing more than a black and white speck within his vision. "...That ill natured girl." He said flatly, his expression growing sour while her pretty face lingered in his mind like a brand left behind in her departure. "She always leaves a bad taste in my mouth." Shirou entered into a deep silence after the words left his mouth, an unamused frown forming as his eyes crinkled in distaste. "I guess I could have worded that differently."

* * *

**_{FATE---STAY---NIGHT}_**

* * *

**_[ Returning late night to the Emiya Estate ]_**

Good times here at the Emiya Residence. Shirou Emiya had finally returned from his unannounced walk, and the women of the house were all glad to see him return safely and in better spirits than he'd been in before he snuck out like a cooperate leader in the midst of a stocks failure. Actually, that might not have been all true; the part about the girls being happy that he was in better spirits that is, because when the lovable Proto-Archer returned he had brought along a little more extra baggage than they were frankly comfortable with. For example–

"You wanna do what?" Rin Tohsaka, official master of Shirou Emiya, asked with an expression that clearly conveyed how much she didn't approve of what she just heard leave his mouth. Saber, who was usually the first to defend and respect her master's opinions and decisions, had a similar expression upon her regal face, eyes narrowed in disapproval with the ends of her lips curling slightly downward in the face of Shirou's reasoning. Their sound logic simply could not– would not comply with what the young Emiya had declared when he joined them at the table.

Shirou could sense the oppressive vibes coming off of Rin and Saber as they stared him down from across the table, with Sakura joining in from the end of the table at his right side, but he kept his chin up as he repeated himself, louder than before. "I'm going to become a vigilante!" He balled his hands into tight fists on his lap as the vibes came off even stronger from the three girls like a dark miasma filling the room. Rider and Illya made no foolish attempt to back him in his decision at that very moment in fear of making the mood even worse, but arguably they were taking this far better than the aforementioned three, listening on calmly without showing any opposition towards this startling turn of events. "It's the only way I'll ever meet Velvet Rose in person, and I _need_ to speak with her or I'll never be able to resolve this anxiety inside of me."

"Sempai." Surprisingly Sakura was the first to speak, getting Rin to turn her head and look to her sister. "I don't mean to offend you by saying this, but this is ridiculous, isn't it?" Her hands balled on the table, trembling ever so slightly. "Going through so much trouble just to meet this woman...why are you so fixated on her, huh?"

Shirou, naturally oblivious to the feelings of his female house mates, especially the intense (_For lack of a better word)_ affection that Sakura harbored for him, did not see her question as an act of unbridled jealousy. No, he did not stop to consider that perhaps his openly displayed obsession over this lady vigilante might have been the actual root of all of this negative chi flowing between him and the girls at the table. So rather than taking the political approach to the situation and easing his way out, he answered Sakura without restrain. "If I can hear her reasons for becoming a vigilante out of her own mouth, then maybe I can clear my mind of these doubts that plague me."

Saber's expression fell grim at his reply to the lovable kohai. "Doubts, Shirou?" She asked, resting her chin on a balled fist with an inquisitive stare. "About what?"

Shirou didn't answer her immediately, instead watching her silently before he opened his mouth. "What it means to uphold justice."

"Justice?" Rin repeated the word with a slight hiss, her dislike for the very word boiling to the surface like a pot of water left unattended on an open fire. "Why does this sound so familiar, Emiya-kun?"

"I know what you're thinking, but I'm not doing this to fulfill some childish aspiration." The young Emiya assured the lovely magus, holding up a hand so she wouldn't interrupt him as she appeared ever so ready to do so. "I don't intend to follow in Archer's footsteps. This is a path I'm paving with my own ideals in mind, not those that I inherited from my father."

"Regardless of your reasons, I find this to be a risky endeavor, Shirou." Saber retorted, crossing her arms with a lift of her chin. "I cannot say that I approve of this idea. Best for you to abandon it before you get ahead of yourself."

"Ahead of myself?" Shirou stared at his faithful partner wide eyed. "Compared to the dangers I've already experienced–"

"It's not the dangers that bother me about this vigilante business that has seduced you." Saber retorted, her gaze sharpening. "It's the decisions you will be forced to make."

Shirou leaned forward questioningly, the message Saber was attempting to get through to him at a loss. "Decisions?"

"Justice isn't a one sided coin." The king of knights explained. "It never has been that easy, never will be. Cast aside your self righteous delusions about this justice you seek, master. What you'll discover at the end of your search is an answer much darker than you believe it to be."

"Then I'll stand tall when the time comes to face it, Saber." Shirou held eye contact with the blonde knight for a few tense seconds, a swirl of unreadable emotions being exchanged between them until Shirou finally broke contact, his shoulders slumping dejectedly when he added in a regretful tone–"With, or without you if that is your decision." Those words must have wounded Saber deeply. The king flinched back from his rejection, widening her eyes in blank shock with a few quick blinks. Rin, Sakura, and Illya were no exception to the feelings that were invoked at his startling words, staring at Shirou as though he'd just broken a sacred vow between him and his partner. Rider maintained a mask of neutrality upon her face in contrast, though she too stared at Shirou all the same.

Saber raised a hand timidly after opening a closing her mouth a few times, looking for all the world like she wanted to reach out to Shirou and keep him from leaving the table despite him not budging from his seat. "...Shirou, I only wish to protect you."

"And never doubt my appreciation, Saber." Shirou spoke to her warmly, perhaps because he himself realized how harsh his prior statement must have came off. "But this is something I can't allow you to keep me from." Sensing a possible assault from his own master, who was still staring at him like he was the enemy of all women in the world, Shirou decided that it would have been in his best interests to bail as gracefully as he could while he was still allowed even that. He stood from the table without announcing his leave and offered Saber a final nod before making his exit.

Rin's eyes followed him like a vulture until he disappeared from the entryway. "...Ugh." The magus brought her palm to her forehead, shaking it slowly as though her head began to ache. "And I really wanted us all to have a quiet night together."

_**...**_

_**...**_

Shirou sat in the shed with his back to the wall, his usual refuge whenever he wanted to be alone, which, like his room, had gradually become less private as of late. Still, bad habits were hard to kill, so here he found himself pondering the events that had transpired earlier at the dining table. "Ahhh, dammit." Shirou sighed out sharply, allowing the back of his head to rest against the wall with a sarcastic grin. "My mouth sure has a knack for getting me into trouble." He squeezed his eyes tight when Saber's shocked face materialized, fresh and vivid in his mind. "I'm sorry, Saber. I shouldn't have said that to you." He paused, opening his eyes with a dull stare, the grin still plastered on his face. "...You should have apologized when she was around to hear it, idiot." He growled to himself.

"I normally don't care for your occasional spats with Saber, but I'll admit that you surprised me this time." Rider's voice alerted the young Emiya of her presence before she dropped down from the ceiling above him, landing in front of him on all fours like a feline. Shirou flinched backwards when she suddenly appeared before him, mistakenly banging his head against the wall in the process. Man, did he hate it whenever she popped up like that. The dark servant must have been an elite ninja in her other life, he was sure of it.

"You keep this up and I foresee a concussion in my future." Shirou remarked tepidly, rubbing the back of his head with one hand.

"So..." Rider moved beside him and took a seat, drawing her right leg toward her with both hands wrapped around the knee while keeping her other leg extended. "What just happened back there, if you don't mind sharing?"

"If I knew it myself I'd try to explain it to you, Rider." He answered her vaguely, folding his hands behind his head as he leaned back against the wall again. "I don't know what came over me during that conversation, to be honest. When she told me that I couldn't handle it, something just came loose inside of me." A curious smile spread along his lips, almost cynical in nature as he went on–"Knowing Saber, she might even be right about what she said, but hearing it out of her mouth felt pretty damn insulting...I guess."

"It's understandable." Rider replied with a casual shrug of her shoulders. "I believe it's called a '_man's pride'_, or something like that. Hearing those words out of your partner's mouth must have poked at some manner of insecurity buried deep within your ego, and your natural reaction was to defend yourself as best you could, even if it meant hurting her." Boy, did Rider have a way with words. She could twist the knife without even trying on an off day, and reduce the average man to a miserable pile of angst on a good day.

"You'd make a terrible psychiatrist." Shirou grumbled, directing a sidelong glance at the dark servant.

Rider stared at him thoughtfully before raising a hand to his forehead. "If you want someone to improve your mood, I'll hel–"

Shirou quickly moved her hand away from him before she could go through with whatever she had planned. "N-No, you don't have to do that!" His immediate rejection seemed to disappoint the bespectacled servant, forming a slight frown upon her lovely lips. She regarded him silently for a moment before reluctantly allowing her hand rest upon her knee.

"If that's your decision, then I'll respect it." She told him softly, turning her head away slightly to keep him from noticing the mysterious gleam in her eye that said otherwise. Thinking on how to keep the ball rolling, Rider posed a question that had been itching at the back of her mind since he returned, "So did you happen to bump into anyone during your evening stroll earlier?" Her question made the young man cringe informing her that indeed he did, and perhaps into someone not too pleasant.

Shirou forced his lips to curl into a smirk. "You know, sometimes it scares me how accurate you tend to be with your questions."

"Does it now?" Rider inquired innocently, cocking her head to the side.

"It almost makes me wonder if you're...watching me."

"Is that so?" The lavender haired beauty responded naturally.

Shirou blinked. "Y-You didn't deny it?"

"Would it set your mind at ease if I did?" Rider asked, her voice betraying nothing.

Shirou knit his brow. "Well, denying it now would make me suspicious after just hearing you ask that question."

Rider extended her pointer finger to draw his attention, adjusting her glasses with an elegant tilting motion of her other hand. "So then, you must resort to convincing yourself that I am not watching you. Employing that method should ensure that you won't become self conscious of your conduct in public whenever you leave the house."

"You're right." Shirou concurred with her reason, nodding his head until–"W-Wait a second!" He shook his head quickly. "You still didn't deny it, and now it sounds like you're implying something unpleasant about the way I carry myself in public."

"Whatever you make of it, Shirou." The dark servant responded unaffectedly. "But we're beginning to lose focus of the actual topic. Why don't you tell me about your walk?" She paused to tuck back one of her inhumanely long locks of hair, with a tantalizing crook of her neck as she did. The young Emiya was grateful that the lights weren't on in the shack, or she might have taken notice of more than the light blush on his cheeks when she did that. "Something must have happened to you out there for you to make such a sudden decision upon your return."

"No reason to keep quiet about it, I guess..." Shirou removed his hands from the back of his head and folded his arms, leaning slightly away from her when he felt her shoulder brush up against his. "I stopped at the Fuyuki bridge to zone out when Caren came across me during one of her late night strolls." He figured it best to neglect mentioning the details of her apparel for the evening. He didn't want Rider getting the impression that Caren's clothes (_or therefore slight lack of_) was the only thing that held his attention during their meeting, as she would undoubtedly allude to upon striking the mood.

Rider blinked, recalling the woman in question. "You mean that weird sister standing in for Kotomine Kirie?"

The young man spared a moment to flash his companion a grin. "Yeah, she's really out there for a woman in her...er...field, I suppose you could refer to it as." Continuing quickly from that minor misstep, "As usual, she started off the conversation by insulting me, talking all sorts of nonsense as soon as she saw me."

"Nonsense?" Rider sounded curious. "Of what sort, if you don't mind me asking?"

"Really?" He raised an eyebrow, him having never intended to expand on that particular detail of the conversation he had with Caren. Why did it seem like this woman was only interested in hearing about the embarrassing details of his life? "You wanna know?" Shirou blinked when she nodded smoothly, without hesitation, and rolled his eyes awkwardly as he thought back to the nun's scathing words. "Erm...well, if I heard her words correctly, she makes me out to be some kind of extremely frustrated guy that would prowl the streets for any woman to satisfy his..." He came to a halt in his explanation, studying the look of understanding that gradually came through on the lovely servant's features. She didn't actually agree with that ill natured sister, did she?

Just to make sure– "You look awfully abiding there, Rider. It's kind of discouraging, you know?"

"Hmm?" Rider slipped back into the present conversation, her eyes regaining proper focus upon detecting Shirou's voice penetrate the veil of risque thoughts that played through her mind like a lovingly organized clip show. They reminded her of the _"Iyaaas!" and "Aaahns!" _that had filled the most recent dreams that she had imparted upon the young Emiya, cries of pleasure expelled from a joyously flustered Mitsuzuri as the young man in question vigorously pounded her hips with unrestrained thrusts. Rider could recall it all vividly: the archery captain's melodic cries of her lover's name as she looked over her shoulder to meet his intense eyes, hands tightly gripping the slightly larger hands that dug into the sides of her shapely behind; the misty dew that formed on the blades of grass around the two of them as they made love in the moon kissed field of the archery range. Indeed, the more Rider thought about Shirou's sexual encounters with the women of his dreams _(herself included on occasion)_, the less she found herself going against Caren's impression of him. Sure, she had faith in Shirou's integrity as a gentleman, and she knew that he would never do anything as morally ambiguous as forcing his own sexual lust upon an unwilling partner, but it would have been a complete lie to claim that his sexual appetite was on the average side. Sometimes, even Rider would admit, it came off as being a little too healthy to be categorized as normal.

"N...Never mind." Shirou dropped the subject quickly before it could carry on any further. "Forget I said anything."

"No!" Rider held him down with a hand on his shoulder before he could stand to leave, discreetly wiping the small drip of blood from her nose with the other hand. "Think nothing of it! It's nothing to be ashamed of!"

"...What exactly?" The young man blinked with a dull expression that spoke of all things but being pleased. "...To be ashamed of?"

"It's of no importance." The dark servant told him, shoving him a thumbs up while maintaining a perfectly serious expression despite the visuals that continued to fill her mind. "So what did you and Caren talk about?"

"...I asked her about her idea of justice, one exchange led to another, and she happened to bring up Velvet Rose." Shirou said the name of the vigilante lightly, not sure how the mention of her would affect Rider. After finding out how the girls particularly felt about her, he figured that the mere mention of the vigilante simply wasn't advised around his house mates. Fortunately the dark servant either couldn't be bothered by it because she was so intent on hearing the rest of what he had to say, or she simply didn't care for it as much as the others did. "She seems to cast her in the same light that Rin and the others do, and as much as I hate to say it...she made some points I couldn't really argue against. At least not without coming off as an idiot."

"Is that so?" Rider mused almost absently.

Shirou shrugged at the lack of response, noting, "I really didn't take notice before, but you're pretty neutral on the subject." He folded his hands behind his head again, shifting so he faced her as he leaned his back against the wall. "I guess you don't let these sort of things concern you, huh?" He chuckled.

"Perhaps." The lavender haired beauty replied vaguely. "But it appears that Shirou has always concerned himself with the subject of justice, and that alone can work as a magnet for change."

"Hm?" He raised an eyebrow upon receiving such an intriguing from her. Her last few responses were sort of uninspiring so to hear her actually offer some productive input was unexpected, _yet_ not unwelcome, a small part of him allowed.

"The strength of one strong will tends to draw others, influencing them, and at times taking control of them." She explained, keeping hold of him with her bewitching eyes as she went on, "I believe the word for this power is charisma, and I have strong reason to believe that you possess it."

"W-Wha..." Shirou stammered out the best response he could in the wake of her surprising words. "You don't really mean that do you, Rider?" He questioned her skeptically after the feeling passed. Not that he couldn't trust the sincerity of her words, but a compliment from her wasn't exactly an everyday occurrence, especially one so grand, and without an accompanying insult to balance it out for good measure.

"I only tell you what I believe." She assured him, taking no offense to his skepticism. "I acknowledge more than just your short comings after all."

_That sounds more like it. _Shirou found some relief in hearing that last smarting statement, smiling genuinely at her for it. "Thank you then, Rider. It flatters me to know that's what you think of me, even if I don't entirely believe it myself." He mumbled his last few words, but Rider's ears picked them up all the same.

"You should learn to appreciate yourself as others do."

"Appreciate _me_, huh?" Shirou's tone became strangely somber in response, drawing a near silent gasp from Rider who hadn't anticipated such a reaction. "You know, Rider..." He trailed off, regarding her with an unreadable expression gracing his handsome face.

For reasons privy to Rider she felt her face begin to build with heat as she brought her hands to wrap around herself. "Yes, Shirou?"

"We talk a lot don't we?"

"Yes...yes, we do."

"I guess I've become so comfortable around you that I barely acknowledge just how casual we are around each other these days."

Now Rider was grateful for the darkness in the room. "Is that so?" She bit her lip when Shirou rested a hand on her shoulder comfortingly.

"I guess what I'm trying to say is, you've become a good friend to me Rider." Shirou made to remove his hand from her shoulder, but her hand rested upon it to keep it there. "I apologize if I've done nothing to make that clear."

"You need not go out of your way, Shirou." Rider told him with the barest of smiles, a rarity comparable to worlds most precious minerals. "Allowing me to be a friend is more than enough."

**_..._**

**_..._**

Shirou couldn't sleep soundly in his room that night for some reason. He twisted right and left in his futon, waking at periods of the night in uncomfortable positions and angles, even finding himself straying from his own bed at times and it disturbed him. His eyes swiveled to the clock on the wall with an unsettling full awareness to confirm how much time he had left until the sun roused him from this restless night, but time was ticking at a near crawl; just twelve twenty-seven and the long hand almost appeared to be held there. What was going on? Why did this night feel so ominous?

"Hm?" The young Emiya felt his blood run cold when he spotted something unnatural in his peripheral–movement. He wasn't alone this night– "R-Rider?" He would later curse himself for saying the name of his former nemesis. He would have never guessed that the person sitting with their back to the wall was his close partner, Saber. It wasn't like her to come into his room unannounced, and not at this time, at least not without informing him earlier in the day that she desired his company...but then again there was something particularly off about Saber this evening. For one, she wasn't wearing any pajamas tonight; the clothes she wore were suspiciously familiar, and secondly, there was something missing. He couldn't quite place his finger on it since the lights were off, but...

"...Where did it go?" Shirou questioned in a deathly silent voice, realizing just what was missing.

"Expecting the company of someone else tonight, I take it?" Saber's voice felt like a cool breeze reaching his ears.

"N-No." Shirou answered her. "But wait, Saber?"

"Call me Arturia." Saber told him, her tone unsettling him. "And get dressed."

"Huh?" He quirked a brow. "What do you mean get dressed? Where are we going?"

"I'm hungry."

"C'mon, Saber–"

"I said call me Arturia, did I not?" Saber cut him off before he could argue.

Now Shirou was beginning to feel a familiar chill. "W-Wait a second..." He glanced at the top of her head, noting once again the absence of her ahoge, however, this time his mind began to put two and two together. "...Who are you?"

Upon hearing his question Saber stood from the floor without warning, making him flinch back out of reflex. Her shadowy figure walked over to the side of the door where his light switch was located and with a flick of her hand the room became illuminated, revealing Saber dressed in his school uniform...and a cold expression gracing her lovely features. Shirou felt himself hold in a breath when he met her gold eyes, confirming his dreadful hunch of just what was going on, but he just couldn't make sense of it. How was she here before him?

"You look very surprised, Shirou." Saber Alter, or rather 'Arturia' told him with a slight bit of mirth in her cruel voice. "Am I unwelcome here?"

Shirou swallowed, choosing his words carefully. "...You're always welcome here...Arturia." He answered her hesitantly, feeling his forearms tremble ever so slightly as the woman approached him, standing over him when the distance between them had become non-existent. "It's just...you look different from what I'm used to seeing. W-Why are you wearing my uniform?" It seemed a little loose on her smaller frame, but she managed to make it work out somehow.

"My own clothes didn't agree with me." She answered him, kneeling down so they were at eye level with each other. "Now," She placed a hand on his shoulder, gripping it a little harder than necessary, "Get dressed so we can leave. I'm hungry."

It took everything within him not to let his voice waver as he held her piercing gaze. "Alright...just give me a moment to get changed."

"No need." Arturia told him, standing away to give him space. "It would not bother me to watch."

Once again, Shirou felt chills run down his spine as the strangest curl became apparent on the tainted servant's lips, but he made no move to oppose her. "If you say so..."

* * *

**_{FATE---STAY---NIGHT}_**

* * *

"Ohm!" Shirou watched mesmerized as another lump traveled down the king's elegant throat marking her consumption of yet another burger, and perhaps the further diminishment of his hard earned cash; with the way this woman made food disappear it might as well have followed suit. Saber was a voracious eater without a doubt in usual form, but she also brought a manner of elegance to her eating. Arturia, on the other hand, simply devoured what was presented to her because it was in the nature of a king to take sustenance so that they may further the lengths of their conquest. To this woman, black as knight in appearance and perhaps soul, food was not an art to be respected, but merely a resource to be consumed and so she did just that without so much as an afterthought.

It was only when she refrained from her eating to suck down on her carbonated drink that she turned an eye upon Shirou Emiya, still staring with wonder at how quickly she made her stack of burgers vanish from sight. "Why do you stare, Shirou? You've yet to eat your own food and you're more interested in watching me do otherwise?" Her voice lacked the warmth and nobility that Saber normally exuded in her speech. Her words came slightly rough with an unsettling chill to accompany it.

"I'm actually not that hungry." He told her, barely managing the words out of his mouth when she reached out and relieved him of his meal with a curt, "Suit yourself, then."

The tainted king resumed scarfing down her food leaving Shirou to stare again, wondering how to approach her with the anxieties occupying his thoughts like why she was even up and about. Alter rarely surfaced to make contact with him, and even in the occasions that she did manifest it was always very brief and of no actual consequence to him. Having an actual sit down with the jaded king was doing bad things for his stress levels.

"Sabe–" Shirou caught himself quickly when her eyebrow twitched at the usual title, "I mean, Arturia." He corrected cautiously, drawing Alter's sharp eyes to regard him with all their frightening intensity.

She set her burger down. "What is it?"

Shirou swallowed down the lump in his throat. "I think you know what." He boldly retorted, getting her to sit back, arms spread along the back end of the booth.

"I won't know unless you speak your thoughts." The king passed the ball back into his court without batting an eye, following with a demand of, "So speak them now, or leave me to my meal."

_Do I love being me._ The young Emiya inwardly quipped at the situation he set himself up for as he folded his hands at his lap beneath the table. This could get ugly if he rubbed her the wrong way, but it wasn't as if he was an expert at juggling words with royalty. The last time he tried that he almost received a face full of flying weaponry courtesy of the king of kings himself. Luckily for him Saber had not been nearly as arrogant and lacking in general conscience as Gilgamesh when he first met her, but Arturia wasn't necessarily Saber per say.

He decided to press his luck with this one. "Why are we sitting here face to face, Arturia? Since when have I been such a subject of interest to you that you would bring me out at this hour to dine with you?" He made sure not to make use of the word '_together'_. Something told him that it would have been downright disrespectful to include himself at her level, at least while they were just coming to understand one another.

It would have been a poor lie to say that he didn't feel his anxieties spike at the sight of a smirk in place of her usual stone like expression. This was a reaction he hadn't been anticipating . "It would seem as though your balls have dropped since we last met, Shirou. It's a pleasant surprise, one of many to come I would hope."

Shirou quirked a brow. By the sound of that he got the impression that she wouldn't be leaving for a while. "What is that supposed to mean?"

"You expressed an interest earlier, one that piqued my interest; a curiosity in becoming a vigilante, was it not?"

"I did." Shirou's knuckles went white under the table fighting to keep a respectable posture before the eyes of the tainted king as he continued, "That interest still remains strong."

"It would displease me to hear otherwise." Alter replied, lifting her chin just slightly when she spoke her part. The gesture alone made her appear to grow before Shirou's eyes, looking down upon him with the overbearing presence of one passing judgement over his life. "I intend to oversee your transformation personally, Shirou; to ensure that you do not stray from this path that you have chosen."

"Wait, what happens to Saber?" As expected his use of the title did not sit well with her, but he was past caring for her mood at this point. The woman sitting in front of him wasn't her. "I'm not referring to you." He made clear to her in an irritated tone, drawing a slight scowl from her at is open disapproval for the conditions of her presence. "How long are you planning on walking around with her body?"

"Hold your tongue, Shirou." Alter spoke low, her voice a crawl that nearly robbed the young man of his gathered wits. "This body is as much mine as it is your beloved Saber's." Her gold orbs transfixed upon him dangerously. "You would do well to keep that information in your thoughts when making foolish claims."

To her surprise Shirou had not backed down from that, matching her glare with one almost as impressive. "You two may share the same body, but your souls are as separate from one another as winter is to spring. You're not the woman I fell in love with, and I refuse to acknowledge you as one and the same." His courageous words might have invited the passage for hell on earth, or perhaps it was that the tainted king's smile was unfit for this world.

"Whether you love me or not, fate has bound our souls as one and in that respect you are just as well mine as you are hers. Your heart and soul belong to me so long as you adore the woman who shares this body with me, so I suggest that you swallow your pride and embrace me, Shirou." Her eyes remained on him when she was done, her food no longer of interest to her and that's when he realized that this would be even more difficult than he had originally imagined.

So he asked the question straight out, "What do you want from me?"

The smile all but gone, she replied cryptically. "I imagine that we desire similar things from each other, master of mine."

Shirou's only response to that answer was to blink. _Well, I imagine that's the sort of answer that will rob me of my sleep tonight..._

Returning home from the burger joint after having that little conversation proved awkward enough for the young Emiya, especially since the tainted king took to walking just a few steps behind him the entire time. He wasn't sure if her reasons for doing so related to some residual sense of protectiveness from her pure self, or simply because she desired to watch him squirm after having the nerve to confront her earlier. Whatever the reason, he was unnerved by it all, and when she halted at one point in the residential block on the way back, staring to the rooftops of the surrounding houses as if expecting someone to ambush them in the streets he became desperately curious of her behavior. Not that his curiosity ever did him any good–

"What's got your attention?" Shirou asked Alter when she drew her eyes away from the rooftops to settle upon him with an unreadable look.

The king crossed her arms in a manner all too familiar to a certain someone else, one eyebrow mocking him. "Your ignorance to the dangers that surround you don't surprise me in the least, master of mine." And her usage of the term _'master'_ could have been no more condescending as it rolled of her sharply tipped tongue.

Shirou turned on his heel after receiving the scalding remark with a grumble of, "We're hitting it off just fine already." There were no further words exchanged for the rest of the walk after that.

The Emiya Estate was still quiet under the weight of slumber when they both returned , and Shirou couldn't be any more grateful for that. Running into Rin or Sakura with Arturia at this hour of the night would have aroused some unhealthy interests in both young women, he was sure. Normally he would have been more wary of Saber's watchful presence, but being that she was technically in his company, creeping through the halls unnoticed proved a manageable task with the proper footing to avoid uncooperative floorboards.

"So," Shirou started off in a quiet voice, stopping in front of his room since it came before Saber's. Alter stood before him unblinking. "Good–" She opened the door and walked past him to enter of her own accord. "–night?" The young man spared a moment to blink in bewilderment before whipping around. "Sabe–ge–I mean, Arturia–" He choked when he saw her strip his jersey off revealing more than enough that his imagination didn't need to compensate for the scandalous imagery. "–What are you getting undressed in here for?" He hissed just as she kicked off his sweat pants, leaving herself in nothing but black lace underwear, which begged the question of where and when she got that risque article of lingerie. Shoving that aside, however, "Your room is down the hall! This is my room, in case that bit of information slipped your mind." Between whispering and trying not to raise his voice too loud he almost came off as a hissing cat.

Alter laid down on his futon, "I'm aware of that." She stared up at him expectantly, her body enticing him with its elegant beauty. "Well?" She raised a brow in veiled irritation. "Join me."

Shirou felt another lump in his throat, trying to keep his focus on her eyes and not straying toward her creamy thighs or the small, perfectly shaped breasts that were once familiar to his touch, but now quite alien to him. "J-Join you for what?"

"Sleep, of course." The tainted king told him, the look in her eyes commanding him as she ordered, "Get undressed and lay with me, Shirou."

Perhaps it was because of her natural charisma; Shirou Emiya wasn't entirely sure at that moment, but he found himself complying with her command in an instant, pulling off his shirt and getting down on his futon with her. Unable to face the intensity of her gaze up close he turned over and gave his back to her only to feel the king press up against him from behind, encircling her arms around him and gripping his chest firmly with her small hands.

"Sleep well." Alter told him before resting her lips on the nape of his neck where they remained all night, and though she held him securely in her arms Shirou never felt so naked and vulnerable in his life.

Sleep did not come easily, just as he had predicted.

* * *

**_POSSIBILITY ONE– TO BE CONCLUDED_**


End file.
